16 research outputs found
Hamiltonian analysis of SO(4,1) constrained BF theory
In this paper we discuss canonical analysis of SO(4,1) constrained BF theory.
The action of this theory contains topological terms appended by a term that
breaks the gauge symmetry down to the Lorentz subgroup SO(3,1). The equations
of motion of this theory turn out to be the vacuum Einstein equations. By
solving the B field equations one finds that the action of this theory contains
not only the standard Einstein-Cartan term, but also the Holst term
proportional to the inverse of the Immirzi parameter, as well as a combination
of topological invariants. We show that the structure of the constraints of a
SO(4,1) constrained BF theory is exactly that of gravity in Holst formulation.
We also briefly discuss quantization of the theory.Comment: 9 page
Kinematics of a relativistic particle with de Sitter momentum space
We discuss kinematical properties of a free relativistic particle with
deformed phase space in which momentum space is given by (a submanifold of) de
Sitter space. We provide a detailed derivation of the action, Hamiltonian
structure and equations of motion for such free particle. We study the action
of deformed relativistic symmetries on the phase space and derive explicit
formulas for the action of the deformed Poincare' group. Finally we provide a
discussion on parametrization of the particle worldlines stressing analogies
and differences with ordinary relativistic kinematics.Comment: RevTeX, 12 pages, no figure
MacDowell-Mansouri gravity and Cartan geometry
The geometric content of the MacDowell-Mansouri formulation of general
relativity is best understood in terms of Cartan geometry. In particular,
Cartan geometry gives clear geometric meaning to the MacDowell-Mansouri trick
of combining the Levi-Civita connection and coframe field, or soldering form,
into a single physical field. The Cartan perspective allows us to view physical
spacetime as tangentially approximated by an arbitrary homogeneous "model
spacetime", including not only the flat Minkowski model, as is implicitly used
in standard general relativity, but also de Sitter, anti de Sitter, or other
models. A "Cartan connection" gives a prescription for parallel transport from
one "tangent model spacetime" to another, along any path, giving a natural
interpretation of the MacDowell-Mansouri connection as "rolling" the model
spacetime along physical spacetime. I explain Cartan geometry, and "Cartan
gauge theory", in which the gauge field is replaced by a Cartan connection. In
particular, I discuss MacDowell-Mansouri gravity, as well as its more recent
reformulation in terms of BF theory, in the context of Cartan geometry.Comment: 34 pages, 5 figures. v2: many clarifications, typos correcte
Free vacuum for loop quantum gravity
We linearize extended ADM-gravity around the flat torus, and use the
associated Fock vacuum to construct a state that could play the role of a free
vacuum in loop quantum gravity. The state we obtain is an element of the
gauge-invariant kinematic Hilbert space and restricted to a cutoff graph, as a
natural consequence of the momentum cutoff of the original Fock state. It has
the form of a Gaussian superposition of spin networks. We show that the peak of
the Gaussian lies at weave-like states and derive a relation between the
coloring of the weaves and the cutoff scale. Our analysis indicates that the
peak weaves become independent of the cutoff length when the latter is much
smaller than the Planck length. By the same method, we also construct
multiple-graviton states. We discuss the possible use of these states for
deriving a perturbation series in loop quantum gravity.Comment: 30 pages, 3 diagrams, treatment of phase factor adde
Quantum symmetry, the cosmological constant and Planck scale phenomenology
We present a simple algebraic argument for the conclusion that the low energy
limit of a quantum theory of gravity must be a theory invariant, not under the
Poincare group, but under a deformation of it parameterized by a dimensional
parameter proportional to the Planck mass. Such deformations, called
kappa-Poincare algebras, imply modified energy-momentum relations of a type
that may be observable in near future experiments. Our argument applies in both
2+1 and 3+1 dimensions and assumes only 1) that the low energy limit of a
quantum theory of gravity must involve also a limit in which the cosmological
constant is taken very small with respect to the Planck scale and 2) that in
3+1 dimensions the physical energy and momenta of physical elementary particles
is related to symmetries of the full quantum gravity theory by appropriate
renormalization depending on Lambda l^2_{Planck}. The argument makes use of the
fact that the cosmological constant results in the symmetry algebra of quantum
gravity being quantum deformed, as a consequence when the limit \Lambda
l^2_{Planck} -> 0 is taken one finds a deformed Poincare invariance. We are
also able to isolate what information must be provided by the quantum theory in
order to determine which presentation of the kappa-Poincare algebra is relevant
for the physical symmetry generators and, hence, the exact form of the modified
energy-momentum relations. These arguments imply that Lorentz invariance is
modified as in proposals for doubly special relativity, rather than broken, in
theories of quantum gravity, so long as those theories behave smoothly in the
limit the cosmological constant is taken to be small.Comment: LaTex, 19 page
Algebraic Quantum Gravity (AQG) III. Semiclassical Perturbation Theory
In the two previous papers of this series we defined a new combinatorical
approach to quantum gravity, Algebraic Quantum Gravity (AQG). We showed that
AQG reproduces the correct infinitesimal dynamics in the semiclassical limit,
provided one incorrectly substitutes the non -- Abelean group SU(2) by the
Abelean group in the calculations. The mere reason why that
substitution was performed at all is that in the non -- Abelean case the volume
operator, pivotal for the definition of the dynamics, is not diagonisable by
analytical methods. This, in contrast to the Abelean case, so far prohibited
semiclassical computations. In this paper we show why this unjustified
substitution nevertheless reproduces the correct physical result: Namely, we
introduce for the first time semiclassical perturbation theory within AQG (and
LQG) which allows to compute expectation values of interesting operators such
as the master constraint as a power series in with error control. That
is, in particular matrix elements of fractional powers of the volume operator
can be computed with extremely high precision for sufficiently large power of
in the expansion. With this new tool, the non -- Abelean
calculation, although technically more involved, is then exactly analogous to
the Abelean calculation, thus justifying the Abelean analysis in retrospect.
The results of this paper turn AQG into a calculational discipline
Doubly Special Relativity and de Sitter space
In this paper we recall the construction of Doubly Special Relativity (DSR)
as a theory with energy-momentum space being the four dimensional de Sitter
space. Then the bases of the DSR theory can be understood as different
coordinate systems on this space. We investigate the emerging geometrical
picture of Doubly Special Relativity by presenting the basis independent
features of DSR that include the non-commutative structure of space-time and
the phase space algebra. Next we investigate the relation between our geometric
formulation and the one based on quantum -deformations of the
Poincar\'e algebra. Finally we re-derive the five-dimensional differential
calculus using the geometric method, and use it to write down the deformed
Klein-Gordon equation and to analyze its plane wave solutions.Comment: 26 pages, one formula (67) corrected; some remarks adde
Interplay between curvature and Planck-scale effects in astrophysics and cosmology
Several recent studies have considered the implications for astrophysics and
cosmology of some possible nonclassical properties of spacetime at the Planck
scale. The new effects, such as a Planck-scale-modified energy-momentum
(dispersion) relation, are often inferred from the analysis of some quantum
versions of Minkowski spacetime, and therefore the relevant estimates depend
heavily on the assumption that there could not be significant interplay between
Planck-scale and curvature effects. We here scrutinize this assumption, using
as guidance a quantum version of de Sitter spacetime with known Inonu-Wigner
contraction to a quantum Minkowski spacetime. And we show that, contrary to
common (but unsupported) beliefs, the interplay between Planck-scale and
curvature effects can be significant. Within our illustrative example, in the
Minkowski limit the quantum-geometry deformation parameter is indeed given by
the Planck scale, while in the de Sitter picture the parameter of quantization
of geometry depends both on the Planck scale and the curvature scalar. For the
much-studied case of Planck-scale effects that intervene in the observation of
gamma-ray bursts we can estimate the implications of "quantum spacetime
curvature" within robust simplifying assumptions. For cosmology at the present
stage of the development of the relevant mathematics one cannot go beyond
semiheuristic reasoning, and we here propose a candidate approximate
description of a quantum FRW geometry, obtained by patching together pieces
(with different spacetime curvature) of our quantum de Sitter. This
semiheuristic picture, in spite of its limitations, provides rather robust
evidence that in the early Universe the interplay between Planck-scale and
curvature effects could have been particularly significant.Comment: 26 pages
Ponzano-Regge model revisited III: Feynman diagrams and Effective field theory
We study the no gravity limit G_{N}-> 0 of the Ponzano-Regge amplitudes with
massive particles and show that we recover in this limit Feynman graph
amplitudes (with Hadamard propagator) expressed as an abelian spin foam model.
We show how the G_{N} expansion of the Ponzano-Regge amplitudes can be
resummed. This leads to the conclusion that the dynamics of quantum particles
coupled to quantum 3d gravity can be expressed in terms of an effective new non
commutative field theory which respects the principles of doubly special
relativity. We discuss the construction of Lorentzian spin foam models
including Feynman propagatorsComment: 46 pages, the wrong file was first submitte
Comparison of relativity theories with observer-independent scales of both velocity and length/mass
We consider the two most studied proposals of relativity theories with
observer-independent scales of both velocity and length/mass: the one discussed
by Amelino-Camelia as illustrative example for the original proposal
(gr-qc/0012051) of theories with two relativistic invariants, and an
alternative more recently proposed by Magueijo and Smolin (hep-th/0112090). We
show that these two relativistic theories are much more closely connected than
it would appear on the basis of a naive analysis of their original
formulations. In particular, in spite of adopting a rather different formal
description of the deformed boost generators, they end up assigning the same
dependence of momentum on rapidity, which can be described as the core feature
of these relativistic theories. We show that this observation can be used to
clarify the concepts of particle mass, particle velocity, and
energy-momentum-conservation rules in these theories with two relativistic
invariants.Comment: 21 pages, LaTex. v2: Andrea Procaccini (contributing some results
from hia Laurea thesis) is added to the list of authors and the paper
provides further elements of comparison between DSR1 and DSR2, including the
observation that both lead to the same formula for the dependence of momentum
on rapidit