1,613 research outputs found
Testing the Master Constraint Programme for Loop Quantum Gravity IV. Free Field Theories
This is the fourth paper in our series of five in which we test the Master
Constraint Programme for solving the Hamiltonian constraint in Loop Quantum
Gravity. We now move on to free field theories with constraints, namely Maxwell
theory and linearized gravity. Since the Master constraint involves squares of
constraint operator valued distributions, one has to be very careful in doing
that and we will see that the full flexibility of the Master Constraint
Programme must be exploited in order to arrive at sensible results.Comment: 23 pages, no figure
Testing the Master Constraint Programme for Loop Quantum Gravity V. Interacting Field Theories
This is the final fifth paper in our series of five in which we test the
Master Constraint Programme for solving the Hamiltonian constraint in Loop
Quantum Gravity. Here we consider interacting quantum field theories,
specificlly we consider the non -- Abelean Gauss constraints of Einstein --
Yang -- Mills theory and 2+1 gravity. Interestingly, while Yang -- Mills theory
in 4D is not yet rigorously defined as an ordinary (Wightman) quantum field
theory on Minkowski space, in background independent quantum field theories
such as Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) this might become possible by working in a
new, background independent representation.Comment: 20 pages, no figure
Testing the Master Constraint Programme for Loop Quantum Gravity II. Finite Dimensional Systems
This is the second paper in our series of five in which we test the Master
Constraint Programme for solving the Hamiltonian constraint in Loop Quantum
Gravity. In this work we begin with the simplest examples: Finite dimensional
models with a finite number of first or second class constraints, Abelean or
non -- Abelean, with or without structure functions.Comment: 23 pages, no figure
Testing the Master Constraint Programme for Loop Quantum Gravity III. SL(2,R) Models
This is the third paper in our series of five in which we test the Master
Constraint Programme for solving the Hamiltonian constraint in Loop Quantum
Gravity. In this work we analyze models which, despite the fact that the phase
space is finite dimensional, are much more complicated than in the second
paper: These are systems with an SL(2,\Rl) gauge symmetry and the
complications arise because non -- compact semisimple Lie groups are not
amenable (have no finite translation invariant measure). This leads to severe
obstacles in the refined algebraic quantization programme (group averaging) and
we see a trace of that in the fact that the spectrum of the Master Constraint
does not contain the point zero. However, the minimum of the spectrum is of
order which can be interpreted as a normal ordering constant arising
from first class constraints (while second class systems lead to normal
ordering constants). The physical Hilbert space can then be be obtained after
subtracting this normal ordering correction.Comment: 33 pages, no figure
Gauge Field Theory Coherent States (GCS) : I. General Properties
In this article we outline a rather general construction of diffeomorphism
covariant coherent states for quantum gauge theories.
By this we mean states , labelled by a point (A,E) in the
classical phase space, consisting of canonically conjugate pairs of connections
A and electric fields E respectively, such that (a) they are eigenstates of a
corresponding annihilation operator which is a generalization of A-iE smeared
in a suitable way, (b) normal ordered polynomials of generalized annihilation
and creation operators have the correct expectation value, (c) they saturate
the Heisenberg uncertainty bound for the fluctuations of and
(d) they do not use any background structure for their definition, that is,
they are diffeomorphism covariant.
This is the first paper in a series of articles entitled ``Gauge Field Theory
Coherent States (GCS)'' which aim at connecting non-perturbative quantum
general relativity with the low energy physics of the standard model. In
particular, coherent states enable us for the first time to take into account
quantum metrics which are excited {\it everywhere} in an asymptotically flat
spacetime manifold. The formalism introduced in this paper is immediately
applicable also to lattice gauge theory in the presence of a (Minkowski)
background structure on a possibly {\it infinite lattice}.Comment: 40 pages, LATEX, no figure
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
Gauge Field Theory Coherent States (GCS) : II. Peakedness Properties
In this article we apply the methods outlined in the previous paper of this
series to the particular set of states obtained by choosing the complexifier to
be a Laplace operator for each edge of a graph. The corresponding coherent
state transform was introduced by Hall for one edge and generalized by
Ashtekar, Lewandowski, Marolf, Mour\~ao and Thiemann to arbitrary, finite,
piecewise analytic graphs. However, both of these works were incomplete with
respect to the following two issues : (a) The focus was on the unitarity of the
transform and left the properties of the corresponding coherent states
themselves untouched. (b) While these states depend in some sense on
complexified connections, it remained unclear what the complexification was in
terms of the coordinates of the underlying real phase space. In this paper we
resolve these issues, in particular, we prove that this family of states
satisfies all the usual properties : i) Peakedness in the configuration,
momentum and phase space (or Bargmann-Segal) representation, ii) Saturation of
the unquenched Heisenberg uncertainty bound. iii) (Over)completeness. These
states therefore comprise a candidate family for the semi-classical analysis of
canonical quantum gravity and quantum gauge theory coupled to quantum gravity,
enable error-controlled approximations and set a new starting point for {\it
numerical canonical quantum general relativity and gauge theory}. The text is
supplemented by an appendix which contains extensive graphics in order to give
a feeling for the so far unknown peakedness properties of the states
constructed.Comment: 70 pages, LATEX, 29 figure
Quantum Spin Dynamics VIII. The Master Constraint
Recently the Master Constraint Programme (MCP) for Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG)
was launched which replaces the infinite number of Hamiltonian constraints by a
single Master constraint. The MCP is designed to overcome the complications
associated with the non -- Lie -- algebra structure of the Dirac algebra of
Hamiltonian constraints and was successfully tested in various field theory
models. For the case of 3+1 gravity itself, so far only a positive quadratic
form for the Master Constraint Operator was derived. In this paper we close
this gap and prove that the quadratic form is closable and thus stems from a
unique self -- adjoint Master Constraint Operator. The proof rests on a simple
feature of the general pattern according to which Hamiltonian constraints in
LQG are constructed and thus extends to arbitrary matter coupling and holds for
any metric signature. With this result the existence of a physical Hilbert
space for LQG is established by standard spectral analysis.Comment: 19p, no figure
Complexifier Coherent States for Quantum General Relativity
Recently, substantial amount of activity in Quantum General Relativity (QGR)
has focussed on the semiclassical analysis of the theory. In this paper we want
to comment on two such developments: 1) Polymer-like states for Maxwell theory
and linearized gravity constructed by Varadarajan which use much of the Hilbert
space machinery that has proved useful in QGR and 2) coherent states for QGR,
based on the general complexifier method, with built-in semiclassical
properties. We show the following: A) Varadarajan's states {\it are}
complexifier coherent states. This unifies all states constructed so far under
the general complexifier principle. B) Ashtekar and Lewandowski suggested a
non-Abelean generalization of Varadarajan's states to QGR which, however, are
no longer of the complexifier type. We construct a new class of non-Abelean
complexifiers which come close to the one underlying Varadarajan's
construction. C) Non-Abelean complexifiers close to Varadarajan's induce new
types of Hilbert spaces which do not support the operator algebra of QGR. The
analysis suggests that if one sticks to the present kinematical framework of
QGR and if kinematical coherent states are at all useful, then normalizable,
graph dependent states must be used which are produced by the complexifier
method as well. D) Present proposals for states with mildened graph dependence,
obtained by performing a graph average, do not approximate well coordinate
dependent observables. However, graph dependent states, whether averaged or
not, seem to be well suited for the semiclassical analysis of QGR with respect
to coordinate independent operators.Comment: Latex, 54 p., no figure
A Path-integral for the Master Constraint of Loop Quantum Gravity
In the present paper, we start from the canonical theory of loop quantum
gravity and the master constraint programme. The physical inner product is
expressed by using the group averaging technique for a single self-adjoint
master constraint operator. By the standard technique of skeletonization and
the coherent state path-integral, we derive a path-integral formula from the
group averaging for the master constraint operator. Our derivation in the
present paper suggests there exists a direct link connecting the canonical Loop
quantum gravity with a path-integral quantization or a spin-foam model of
General Relativity.Comment: 19 page
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