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Register a new userSteps towards Lorentzian quantum gravity with causal sets
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Astrid Eichhorn
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Causal set quantum gravity is a Lorentzian approach to quantum gravity, based on the causal structure of spacetime. It models each spacetime configuration as a discrete causal network of spacetime points. As such, key questions of the approach include whether and how a reconstruction of a sufficiently coarse-grained spacetime geometry is possible from a causal set. As an example for the recovery of spatial geometry from discrete causal structure, the construction of a spatial distance function for causal sets is reviewed. Secondly, it is an open question whether the path sum over all causal sets gives rise to an expectation value for the causal set that corresponds to a cosmologically viable spacetime. To provide a tool to tackle the path sum over causal sets, the derivation of a flow equation for the effective action for causal sets in matrix-model language is reviewed. This could provide a way to coarse-grain discrete networks in a background-independent way. Finally, a short roadmap to test the asymptotic-safety conjecture in Lorentzian quantum gravity using causal sets is sketched.
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Within the context of the Ashtekar variables, the Hamiltonian constraint of four-dimensional pure General Relativity with cosmological constant, $Lambda$, is reexpressed as an affine algebra with the commutator of the imaginary part of the Chern-Simons functional, $Q$, and the positive-definite volume element. This demonstrates that the affine algebra quantization program of Klauder can indeed be applicable to the full Lorentzian signature theory of quantum gravity with non-vanishing cosmological constant; and it facilitates the construction of solutions to all of the constraints. Unitary, irreducible representations of the affine group exhibit a natural Hilbert space structure, and coherent states and other physical states can be generated from a fiducial state. It is also intriguing that formulation of the Hamiltonian constraint or Wheeler-DeWitt equation as an affine algebra requires a non-vanishing cosmological constant; and a fundamental uncertainty relation of the form $frac{Delta{V}}{<{V}>}Delta {Q}geq 2pi Lambda L^2_{Planck}$ (wherein $V$ is the total volume) may apply to all physical states of quantum gravity.
The causal set theory (CST) approach to quantum gravity postulates that at the most fundamental level, spacetime is discrete, with the spacetime continuum replaced by locally finite posets or causal sets. The partial order on a causal set represents a proto-causality relation while local finiteness encodes an intrinsic discreteness. In the continuum approximation the former corresponds to the spacetime causality relation and the latter to a fundamental spacetime atomicity, so that finite volume regions in the continuum contain only a finite number of causal set elements. CST is deeply rooted in the Lorentzian character of spacetime, where a primary role is played by the causal structure poset. Importantly, the assumption of a fundamental discreteness in CST does not violate local Lorentz invariance in the continuum approximation. On the other hand, the combination of discreteness and Lorentz invariance gives rise to a characteristic non-locality which distinguishes CST from most other approaches to quantum gravity. In this review we give a broad, semi-pedagogical introduction to CST, highlighting key results as well as some of the key open questions. This review is intended both for the beginner student in quantum gravity as well as more seasoned researchers in the field.
An important probe of quantum geometry is its spectral dimension, defined via a spatial diffusion process. In this work we study the spectral dimension of a ``spatial hypersurface in a manifoldlike causal set using the induced spatial distance function. In previous work, the diffusion was taken on the full causal set, where the nearest neighbours are unbounded in number. The resulting super-diffusion leads to an increase in the spectral dimension at short diffusion times, in contrast to other approaches to quantum gravity. In the current work, by using a temporal localisation in the causal set, the number of nearest spatial neighbours is rendered finite. Using numerical simulations of causal sets obtained from $d=3$ Minkowski spacetime, we find that for a flat spatial hypersurface, the spectral dimension agrees with the Hausdorff dimension at intermediate scales, but shows clear indications of dimensional reduction at small scales, i.e., in the ultraviolet. The latter is a direct consequence of ``discrete asymptotic silence at small scales in causal sets.
D = 2+1 gravity with a cosmological constant has been shown by Bonzom and Livine to present a Barbero-Immirzi like ambiguity depending on a parameter. We make use of this fact to show that, for positive cosmological constant, the Lorentzian theory can be partially gauge fixed and reduced to an SU(2) Chern-Simons theory. We then review the already known quantization of the latter in the framework of Loop Quantization for the case of space being topogically a cylinder. We finally construct, in the same setting, a quantum observable which, although non-trivial at the quantum level, corresponds to a null classical quantity.
We study dimensionally restricted non-perturbative causal set quantum dynamics in $2$ and $3$ spacetime dimensions with non-trivial global spatial topology. The causal set sample space is generated from causal embeddings into spacetime lattices with global spatial topology $S^1$ and $T^2$ in $2$ and $3$ dimensions, respectively. The quantum gravity partition function over these sample spaces is studied using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulations after analytic continuation. In both $2$ and $3$ dimensions we find a phase transition that separates the dominance of the action from that of the entropy. The action dominated phase is characterised by ``layered posets with a high degree of connectivity, while the causal sets in the entropy dominated phase are manifold-like. This phase transition is similar in character to that seen for the sample space of $2$-orders, which are topologically trivial, hence suggesting that this is a generic feature of dimensionally restricted sample spaces. The simulations use a newly developed framework for causal set MCMC calculations. Ours is the first implementation of a causal set dynamics restricted to $3$ dimensions.
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