137 research outputs found
Non-commutative holonomies in 2+1 LQG and Kauffman's brackets
We investigate the canonical quantization of 2+1 gravity with {\Lambda} > 0
in the canonical framework of LQG. A natural regularization of the constraints
of 2+1 gravity can be defined in terms of the holonomies of A\pm = A \PM
\surd{\Lambda}e, where the SU(2) connection A and the triad field e are the
conjugated variables of the theory. As a first step towards the quantization of
these constraints we study the canonical quantization of the holonomy of the
connection A_{\lambda} = A + {\lambda}e acting on spin network links of the
kinematical Hilbert space of LQG. We provide an explicit construction of the
quantum holonomy operator, exhibiting 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 the result is completely described in
terms of standard SU(2) spin network states.Comment: 4 pages; Proceedings of Loops'11, Madrid, to appear in Journal of
Physics: Conference Series (JPCS
Three Dimensional Quantum Geometry and Deformed Poincare Symmetry
We study a three dimensional non-commutative space emerging in the context of
three dimensional Euclidean quantum gravity. Our starting point is the
assumption that the isometry group is deformed to the Drinfeld double D(SU(2)).
We generalize to the deformed case the construction of the flat Euclidean space
as the quotient of its isometry group ISU(2) by SU(2). We show that the algebra
of functions becomes the non-commutative algebra of SU(2) distributions endowed
with the convolution product. This construction gives the action of ISU(2) on
the algebra and allows the determination of plane waves and coordinate
functions. In particular, we show that: (i) plane waves have bounded momenta;
(ii) to a given momentum are associated several SU(2) elements leading to an
effective description of an element in the algebra in terms of several physical
scalar fields; (iii) their product leads to a deformed addition rule of momenta
consistent with the bound on the spectrum. We generalize to the non-commutative
setting the local action for a scalar field. Finally, we obtain, using harmonic
analysis, another useful description of the algebra as the direct sum of the
algebra of matrices. The algebra of matrices inherits the action of ISU(2):
rotations leave the order of the matrices invariant whereas translations change
the order in a way we explicitly determine.Comment: latex, 37 page
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
6J Symbols Duality Relations
It is known that the Fourier transformation of the square of (6j) symbols has
a simple expression in the case of su(2) and U_q(su(2)) when q is a root of
unit. The aim of the present work is to unravel the algebraic structure behind
these identities. We show that the double crossproduct construction H_1\bowtie
H_2 of two Hopf algebras and the bicrossproduct construction H_2^{*}\lrbicross
H_1 are the Hopf algebras structures behind these identities by analysing
different examples. We study the case where D= H_1\bowtie H_2 is equal to the
group algebra of ISU(2), SL(2,C) and where D is a quantum double of a finite
group, of SU(2) and of U_q(su(2)) when q is real.Comment: 28 pages, 2 figure
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
A Note on B-observables in Ponzano-Regge 3d Quantum Gravity
We study the insertion and value of metric observables in the (discrete) path
integral formulation of the Ponzano-Regge spinfoam model for 3d quantum
gravity. In particular, we discuss the length spectrum and the relation between
insertion of such B-observables and gauge fixing in the path integral.Comment: 17 page
Spin Foams and Canonical Quantization
This review is devoted to the analysis of the mutual consistency of the spin foam and canonical loop quantizations in three and four spacetime dimensions. In the three-dimensional context, where the two approaches are in good agreement, we show how the canonical quantization à la Witten of Riemannian gravity with a positive cosmological constant is related to the Turaev-Viro spin foam model, and how the Ponzano-Regge amplitudes are related to the physical scalar product of Riemannian loop quantum gravity without cosmological constant. In the four-dimensional case, we recall a Lorentz-covariant formulation of loop quantum gravity using projected spin networks, compare it with the new spin foam models, and identify interesting relations and their pitfalls. Finally, we discuss the properties which a spin foam model is expected to possess in order to be consistent with the canonical quantization, and suggest a new model illustrating these results
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
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