Recursive sampling simulations of 3D gravity coupled to scalar fermions

Abstract

We study numerically the phase structure of a model of 3D gravity interacting with scalar fermions. We measure the 3D counterpart of the "string" susceptibility exponent as a function of the inverse Newton coupling $\alpha$. We show that there are two phases separated by a critical point around $\alpha_c \simeq 2$. The numerical results support the hypothesis that the phase structures of 3D and 2D simplicial gravity are qualitatively similar, the inverse Newton coupling in 3D playing the role of the central charge of matter in 2D.Comment: Latex with 6 figure files, 17 page