Geometry of the quantum universe

A universe much like the (Euclidean) de Sitter space-time appears as background geometry in the causal dynamical triangulation (CDT) regularization of quantum gravity. We study the geometry of such universes which appear in the path integral as a function of the bare coupling constants of the theory.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures. Typos corrected. Conclusions unchange

Shaken, but not stirred - Potts model coupled to quantum gravity

We investigate the critical behaviour of both matter and geometry of the three-state Potts model coupled to two-dimensional Lorentzian quantum gravity in the framework of causal dynamical triangulations. Contrary to what general arguments of the effects of disorder suggest, we find strong numerical evidence that the critical exponents of the matter are not changed under the influence of quantum fluctuations in the geometry, compared to their values on fixed, regular lattices. This lends further support to previous findings that quantum gravity models based on causal dynamical triangulations are in many ways better behaved than their Euclidean counterparts.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figure

Baby Universes Revisited

The behaviour of baby universes has been an important ingredient in understanding and quantifying non-critical string theory or, equivalently, models of two-dimensional Euclidean quantum gravity coupled to matter. Within a regularized description based on dynamical triangulations, we amend an earlier conjecture by Jain and Mathur on the scaling behaviour of genus-$g$ surfaces containing particular baby universe `necks', and perform a nontrivial numerical check on our improved conjecture.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur

The emergence of background geometry from quantum fluctuations

We show how the quantization of two-dimensional gravity leads to an (Euclidean) quantum space-time where the average geometry is that of constant negative curvature and where the Hartle-Hawking boundary condition arises naturally.Comment: 12 page

Nonperturbative Quantum Gravity

Asymptotic safety describes a scenario in which general relativity can be quantized as a conventional field theory, despite being nonrenormalizable when expanding it around a fixed background geometry. It is formulated in the framework of the Wilsonian renormalization group and relies crucially on the existence of an ultraviolet fixed point, for which evidence has been found using renormalization group equations in the continuum. "Causal Dynamical Triangulations" (CDT) is a concrete research program to obtain a nonperturbative quantum field theory of gravity via a lattice regularization, and represented as a sum over spacetime histories. In the Wilsonian spirit one can use this formulation to try to locate fixed points of the lattice theory and thereby provide independent, nonperturbative evidence for the existence of a UV fixed point. We describe the formalism of CDT, its phase diagram, possible fixed points and the "quantum geometries" which emerge in the different phases. We also argue that the formalism may be able to describe a more general class of Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravitational models.Comment: Review, 146 pages, many figure

A new continuum limit of matrix models

We define a new scaling limit of matrix models which can be related to the method of causal dynamical triangulations (CDT) used when investigating two-dimensional quantum gravity. Surprisingly, the new scaling limit of the matrix models is also a matrix model, thus explaining why the recently developed CDT continuum string field theory (arXiv:0802.0719) has a matrix-model representation (arXiv:0804.0252).Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure

The nature of ZZ branes

In minimal non-critical string theory we show that the principal (r,s) ZZ brane can be viewed as the basic (1,1) ZZ boundary state tensored with the (r,s) Cardy boundary state. In this sense there exists only one ZZ boundary state, the basic (1,1) boundary state.Comment: 10 pages, footnote adde

Gauge fixing in Causal Dynamical Triangulations

We relax the definition of the Ambjorn-Loll causal dynamical triangulation model in 1+1 dimensions to allow for a varying lapse. We show that, as long as the spatially averaged lapse is constant in time, the physical observables are unchanged in the continuum limit. This supports the claim that the time slicing of the model is the result of a gauge fixing, rather than a physical preferred time slicing.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figure

On subdivision invariant actions for random surfaces

We consider a subdivision invariant action for dynamically triangulated random surfaces that was recently proposed (R.V. Ambartzumian et. al., Phys. Lett. B 275 (1992) 99) and show that it is unphysical: The grand canonical partition function is infinite for all values of the coupling constants. We conjecture that adding the area action to the action of Ambartzumian et. al. leads to a well-behaved theory.Comment: 7 pages, Latex, RH-08-92 and YITP/U-92-3

An Analytical Analysis of CDT Coupled to Dimer-like Matter

We consider a model of restricted dimers coupled to two-dimensional causal dynamical triangulations (CDT), where the dimer configurations are restricted in the sense that they do not include dimers in regions of high curvature. It is shown how the model can be solved analytically using bijections with decorated trees. At a negative critical value for the dimer fugacity the model undergoes a phase transition at which the critical exponent associated to the geometry changes. This represents the first account of an analytical study of a matter model with two-dimensional interactions coupled to CDT.Comment: 12 pages, many figures, shortened, as publishe