Cosmological measurements, time and observables in (2+1)-dimensional gravity

DOI10.1088/0264-9381/26/5/055006MaRDI QIDQ3616404zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Catherine Meusburger

Publication date 25 March 2009

Published in Classical and Quantum Gravity (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/0811.4155

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Quantum field theory on curved space or space-time backgrounds (81T20) Equations of motion in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C10) Analogues of general relativity in lower dimensions (83C80) Relativistic cosmology (83F05)

Abstract: We investigate the relation between measurements and the physical observables for vacuum spacetimes with compact spatial surfaces in (2+1)-gravity with vanishing cosmological constant. By considering an observer who emits lightrays that return to him at a later time, we obtain explicit expressions for several measurable quantities as functions on the physical phase space of the theory: the eigentime elapsed between the emission of a lightray and its return to the observer, the angles between the directions into which the light has to be emitted to return to the observer and the relative frequencies of the lightrays at their emission and return. This provides a framework in which conceptual questions about time, observables and measurements can be addressed. We analyse the properties of these measurements and their geometrical interpretation and show how they allow an observer to determine the values of the Wilson loop observables that parametrise the physical phase space of (2+1)-gravity. We discuss the role of time in the theory and demonstrate that the specification of an observer with respect to the spacetime's geometry amounts to a gauge fixing procedure yielding Dirac observables.

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Cited in

(13)

• Scalar field as an intrinsic time measure in coupled dynamical matter-geometry systems. I: Neutral gravitational collapse
• Gauge fixing in (2+1)-gravity: Dirac bracket and spacetime geometry
• Global Lorentzian geometry from lightlike geodesies: what does an observer in (2+1)-gravity see?
• Measuring the metric in (2+1)-dimensional quantum gravity
• Geometrical measurements in three-dimensional quantum gravity
• Singularity free stars in (2+1) dimensions
• Obtaining the spacetime metric from cosmological observations
• Gravitational decoupling in 2  +  1 dimensional space-times with cosmological term
• Cosmological time in (2+1)-gravity
• Geometry and observables in (2+1)-gravity
• Background-independence
• Recovering the geometry of a flat spacetime from background radiation
• On time variation of \(G\) in multidimensional models with two curvatures

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