31 research outputs found
Unfashionable observations about three dimensional gravity
It is commonly accepted that the study of 2+1 dimensional quantum gravity
could teach us something about the 3+1 dimensional case. The non-perturbative
methods developed in this case share, as basic ingredient, a reformulation of
gravity as a gauge field theory. However, these methods suffer many problems.
Firstly, this perspective abandon the non-degeneracy of the metric and
causality as fundamental principles, hoping to recover them in a certain
low-energy limit. Then, it is not clear how these combinatorial techniques
could be used in the case where matter fields are added, which are however the
essential ingredients in order to produce non trivial observables in a
generally covariant approach. Endly, considering the status of the observer in
these approaches, it is not clear at all if they really could produce a
completely covariant description of quantum gravity. We propose to re-analyse
carefully these points. This study leads us to a really covariant description
of a set of self-gravitating point masses in a closed universe. This approach
is based on a set of observables associated to the measurements accessible to a
participant-observer, they manage to capture the whole dynamic in Chern-Simons
gravity as well as in true gravity. The Dirac algebra of these observables can
be explicitely computed, and exhibits interesting algebraic features related to
Poisson-Lie groupoids theory.Comment: 50 pages, written in LaTex, 3 pictures in encapsulated postscrip
Three dimensional loop quantum gravity: coupling to point particles
We consider the coupling between three dimensional gravity with zero
cosmological constant and massive spinning point particles. First, we study the
classical canonical analysis of the coupled system. Then, we go to the
Hamiltonian quantization generalizing loop quantum gravity techniques. We give
a complete description of the kinematical Hilbert space of the coupled system.
Finally, we define the physical Hilbert space of the system of self-gravitating
massive spinning point particles using Rovelli's generalized projection
operator which can be represented as a sum over spin foam amplitudes. In
addition we provide an explicit expression of the (physical) distance operator
between two particles which is defined as a Dirac observable.Comment: Typos corrected and references adde
Canonical analysis of the BCEA topological matter model coupled to gravitation in (2+1) dimensions
We consider a topological field theory derived from the Chern - Simons action
in (2+1) dimensions with the I(ISO(2,1)) group,and we investigate in detail the
canonical structure of this theory.Originally developed as a topological theory
of Einstein gravity minimally coupled to topological matter fields in (2+1)
dimensions, it admits a BTZ black-hole solutions, and can be generalized to
arbitrary dimensions.In this paper, we further study the canonical structure of
the theory in (2+1) dimensions, by identifying all the distinct gauge
equivalence classes of solutions as they result from holonomy considerations.
The equivalence classes are discussed in detail, and examples of solutions
representative of each class are constructed or identified.Comment: 17 pages, no figure
Hamiltonian Quantization of Chern-Simons theory with SL(2,C) Group
We analyze the hamiltonian quantization of Chern-Simons theory associated to
the universal covering of the Lorentz group SO(3,1). The algebra of observables
is generated by finite dimensional spin networks drawn on a punctured
topological surface. Our main result is a construction of a unitary
representation of this algebra. For this purpose, we use the formalism of
combinatorial quantization of Chern-Simons theory, i.e we quantize the algebra
of polynomial functions on the space of flat SL(2,C)-connections on a
topological surface with punctures. This algebra admits a unitary
representation acting on an Hilbert space which consists in wave packets of
spin-networks associated to principal unitary representations of the quantum
Lorentz group. This representation is constructed using only Clebsch-Gordan
decomposition of a tensor product of a finite dimensional representation with a
principal unitary representation. The proof of unitarity of this representation
is non trivial and is a consequence of properties of intertwiners which are
studied in depth. We analyze the relationship between the insertion of a
puncture colored with a principal representation and the presence of a
world-line of a massive spinning particle in de Sitter space.Comment: 78 pages. Packages include
Cosmological Plebanski theory
We consider the cosmological symmetry reduction of the Plebanski action as a
toy-model to explore, in this simple framework, some issues related to loop
quantum gravity and spin-foam models. We make the classical analysis of the
model and perform both path integral and canonical quantizations. As for the
full theory, the reduced model admits two types of classical solutions:
topological and gravitational ones. The quantization mixes these two solutions,
which prevents the model to be equivalent to standard quantum cosmology.
Furthermore, the topological solution dominates at the classical limit. We also
study the effect of an Immirzi parameter in the model.Comment: 20 page
Degenerate Plebanski Sector and Spin Foam Quantization
We show that the degenerate sector of Spin(4) Plebanski formulation of
four-dimensional gravity is exactly solvable and describes covariantly embedded
SU(2) BF theory. This fact ensures that its spin foam quantization is given by
the SU(2) Crane-Yetter model and allows to test various approaches of imposing
the simplicity constraints. Our analysis strongly suggests that restricting
representations and intertwiners in the state sum for Spin(4) BF theory is not
sufficient to get the correct vertex amplitude. Instead, for a general theory
of Plebanski type, we propose a quantization procedure which is by construction
equivalent to the canonical path integral quantization and, being applied to
our model, reproduces the SU(2) Crane-Yetter state sum. A characteristic
feature of this procedure is the use of secondary second class constraints on
an equal footing with the primary simplicity constraints, which leads to a new
formula for the vertex amplitude.Comment: 34 pages; changes in the abstract and introduction, a few references
adde
Motion in Quantum Gravity
We tackle the question of motion in Quantum Gravity: what does motion mean at
the Planck scale? Although we are still far from a complete answer we consider
here a toy model in which the problem can be formulated and resolved precisely.
The setting of the toy model is three dimensional Euclidean gravity. Before
studying the model in detail, we argue that Loop Quantum Gravity may provide a
very useful approach when discussing the question of motion in Quantum Gravity.Comment: 30 pages, to appear in the book "Mass and Motion in General
Relativity", proceedings of the C.N.R.S. School in Orleans, France, eds. L.
Blanchet, A. Spallicci and B. Whitin
Ponzano-Regge model revisited I: Gauge fixing, observables and interacting spinning particles
We show how to properly gauge fix all the symmetries of the Ponzano-Regge
model for 3D quantum gravity. This amounts to do explicit finite computations
for transition amplitudes. We give the construction of the transition
amplitudes in the presence of interacting quantum spinning particles. We
introduce a notion of operators whose expectation value gives rise to either
gauge fixing, introduction of time, or insertion of particles, according to the
choice. We give the link between the spin foam quantization and the hamiltonian
quantization. We finally show the link between Ponzano-Regge model and the
quantization of Chern-Simons theory based on the double quantum group of SU(2)Comment: 48 pages, 15 figure
Canonical quantization of non-commutative holonomies in 2+1 loop quantum gravity
In this work we investigate the canonical quantization of 2+1 gravity with
cosmological constant in the canonical framework of loop quantum
gravity. The unconstrained phase space of gravity in 2+1 dimensions is
coordinatized by an SU(2) connection and the canonically conjugate triad
field . A natural regularization of the constraints of 2+1 gravity can be
defined in terms of the holonomies of . As a first step
towards the quantization of these constraints we study the canonical
quantization of the holonomy of the connection on the
kinematical Hilbert space of loop quantum gravity. The holonomy operator
associated to a given path acts non trivially on spin network links that are
transversal to the path (a crossing). We provide an explicit construction of
the quantum holonomy operator. In particular, we exhibit a close relationship
between the action of the quantum holonomy at a crossing and Kauffman's
q-deformed crossing identity. The crucial difference is that (being an operator
acting on the kinematical Hilbert space of LQG) the result is completely
described in terms of standard SU(2) spin network states (in contrast to
q-deformed spin networks in Kauffman's identity). We discuss the possible
implications of our result.Comment: 19 pages, references added. Published versio
Polygon model from first order gravity
The gauge fixed polygon model of 2+1 gravity with zero cosmological constant
and arbitrary number of spinless point particles is reconstructed from the
first order formalism of the theory in terms of the triad and the spin
connection. The induced symplectic structure is calculated and shown to agree
with the canonical one in terms of the variables.Comment: 20 pages, presentation improved, typos correcte