The Pauli Exclusion Principle and SU(2) vs. SO(3) in Loop Quantum Gravity

Abstract

Recent attempts to resolve the ambiguity in the loop quantum gravity description of the quantization of area has led to the idea that j=1 edges of spin-networks dominate in their contribution to black hole areas as opposed to j=1/2 which would naively be expected. This suggests that the true gauge group involved might be SO(3) rather than SU(2) with attendant difficulties. We argue that the assumption that a version of the Pauli principle is present in loop quantum gravity allows one to maintain SU(2) as the gauge group while still naturally achieving the desired suppression of spin-1/2 punctures. Areas come from j=1 punctures rather than j=1/2 punctures for much the same reason that photons lead to macroscopic classically observable fields while electrons do not.Comment: This paper received an "honorable mention" in the 2003 Essay Competition of the Gravity Research Foundation and should be appearing in a special issue of Int. J. Mod. Phys.