No Arabic abstract
This is the second paper in a series on the dynamics of matter fields in the causal set approach to quantum gravity. We start with the usual expression for the Lagrangian of a charged scalar field coupled to a SU(n) Yang-Mills field, in which the gauge field is represented by a connection form, and show how to write it in terms of holonomies between pairs of points, causal relations, and volumes or timelike distances, all of which have a natural correspondence in the causal set context. In the second part of the paper we present an alternative model, in which the gauge field appears as the result of a procedure inspired by the Kaluza-Klein reduction in continuum field theory, and the dynamics can be derived simply using the gravitational Lagrangian of the theory.
The goal of this paper is to define fermionic fields on causal set. This is done by the use of holonomies to define vierbines, and then defining spinor fields by taking advantage of the leftover degrees of freedom of holonomies plus additional scalar fields. Grassmann nature is being enforced by allowing measure to take both positive and negative values, and also by introducing a vector space to have both commutting dot product and anticommutting wedge product.
The goal of this paper is to propose an approach to the formulation of dynamics for causal sets and coupled matter fields. We start from the continuum version of the action for a Klein-Gordon field coupled to gravity, and rewrite it first using quantities that have a direct correspondent in the case of a causal set, namely volumes, causal relations, and timelike lengths, as variables to describe the geometry. In this step, the local Lagrangian density $L(f;x)$ for a set of fields $f$ is recast into a quasilocal expression $L_0(f;p,q)$ that depends on pairs of causally related points $p prec q$ and is a function of the values of $f$ in the Alexandrov set defined by those points, and whose limit as $p$ and $q$ approach a common point $x$ is $L(f;x)$. We then describe how to discretize $L_0(f;p,q)$, and use it to define a discrete action.
In this paper we will define a Lagrangian for scalar and gauge fields on causal sets, based on the selection of an Alexandrov set in which the variations of appropriate expressions in terms of either the scalar field or the gauge field holonomies around suitable loops take on the least value. For these fields, we will find that the values of the variations of these expressions define Lagrangians in covariant form.
In this paper we address the non-locality issue of quantum field theory on a causal set by rewriting it in such a way that avoids the use of dAlembertian. We do that by replacing scalar field over points with scalar field over edges, where the edges are taken to be very long rather than very short. In particular, they are much longer than the size of the laboratory. Due to their large length, we can single out the edges that are almost parallel to each other, and then use directional derivatives in the direction of those edges (as opposed to dAlembertian) along with a constraint that the derivatives are small in the direction perpendicular to those edges, in order to come up with a plane wave. The scalar field is thought to reside at the future end of those edges, which renders the seemingly nonlocal effects of their large length as physically irrelevant. After that we add by hand the interaction of those plane waves that would amount to 4-vertex coupling of plane waves.
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.