Complex actions in two-dimensional topology change

DOI10.1088/0264-9381/14/1/018zbMATH Open0868.53069arXivgr-qc/9511023OpenAlexW3104090822MaRDI QIDQ4332178FDOQ4332178

Authors: Jorma Louko, Rafael D. Sorkin 

Publication date: 19 August 1997

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

Abstract: We investigate topology change in (1+1) dimensions by analyzing the scalar-curvature action $1/2intRdV$ at the points of metric-degeneration that (with minor exceptions) any nontrivial Lorentzian cobordism necessarily possesses. In two dimensions any cobordism can be built up as a combination of only two elementary types, the ``yarmulke and the ``trousers. For each of these elementary cobordisms, we consider a family of Morse-theory inspired Lorentzian metrics that vanish smoothly at a single point, resulting in a conical-type singularity there. In the yarmulke case, the distinguished point is analogous to a cosmological initial (or final) singularity, with the spacetime as a whole being obtained from one causal region of Misner space by adjoining a single point. In the trousers case, the distinguished point is a ``crotch singularity that signals a change in the spacetime topology (this being also the fundamental vertex of string theory, if one makes that interpretation). We regularize the metrics by adding a small imaginary part whose sign is fixed to be positive by the condition that it lead to a convergent scalar field path integral on the regularized spacetime. As the regulator is removed, the scalar density $1/2sqrt-gR$ approaches a delta-function whose strength is complex: for the yarmulke family the strength is $$, where $$ is the rapidity parameter of the associated Misner space; for the trousers family it is simply $+2pii$. This implies that in the path integral over spacetime metrics for Einstein gravity in three or more spacetime dimensions, topology change via a crotch singularity is exponentially suppressed, whereas appearance or disappearance of a universe via a yarmulke singularity is exponentially enhanced.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9511023

Recommendations

• Topology change in classical and quantum gravity
• Topology change by tunnelling in semiclassical Einstein gravity-time slice in (2+1)-dimensional toy model
• Topology change in (2+1)-dimensional gravity
• Topological changes in lower dimensions

zbMATH Keywords

topology change2-dimensional spacetimes

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Applications of differential geometry to physics (53Z05) Einstein's equations (general structure, canonical formalism, Cauchy problems) (83C05) Space-time singularities, cosmic censorship, etc. (83C75)

Cited In (36)

• Real time holography for higher spin theories
• Forks in the road, on the way to quantum gravity
• Gravitational thermodynamics without the conformal factor problem: partition functions and Euclidean saddles from Lorentzian path integrals
• Cosmology in Lorentzian Regge calculus: causality violations, massless scalar field and discrete dynamics
• The causal set approach to quantum gravity
• Effective spin foam models for Lorentzian quantum gravity
• Time-independence of gravitational Rényi entropies and unitarity in quantum gravity
• \(SU(1, 1)\) and \(SU(2)\) bundles on \(AdS_4\) and complex supergravity solutions
• Path integrals in quadratic gravity
• Complex actions and causality violations: applications to Lorentzian quantum cosmology
• A note on the admissibility of complex BTZ metrics
• Real-time gravitational replicas: low dimensional examples
• Observations of Hawking radiation: the Page curve and baby universes
• Real-time gravitational replicas: formalism and a variational principle
• Type-II Calabi-Yau compactifications, T-duality and special geometry in general spacetime signature
• Subadditive average distances and quantum promptness
• Topology change in classical and quantum gravity
• Convergence of the Fefferman-Graham expansion and complex black hole anatomy
• Measurement-induced phase transition in teleportation and wormholes
• Non-perturbative Lorentzian quantum gravity, causality and topology change
• An integrable road to a perturbative plateau
• Putting a cap on causality violations in causal dynamical triangulations
• The semi-classical saddles in three-dimensional gravity via holography and mini-superspace approach
• The power of Lorentzian wormholes
• DISTRIBUTIONAL SOURCES IN GENERAL RELATIVITY: TWO POINT-LIKE EXAMPLES REVISITED
• Review of the no-boundary wave function
• Canonical quantization of the electromagnetic field in arbitrary \(\xi \)-gauge
• Non-topological logarithmic corrections in minimal gauged supergravity
• Feynman's \(i\epsilon\) prescription, almost real spacetimes, and acceptable complex spacetimes
• The spectral geometry of de Sitter space in asymptotic safety
• Complex, Lorentzian, and Euclidean simplicial quantum gravity: numerical methods and physical prospects
• Firewalls at exponentially late times
• Spikes and spines in 4D Lorentzian simplicial quantum gravity
• Uses of complex metrics in cosmology
• Combinatorial space from loop quantum gravity
• Spectral form factor for free large \(N\) gauge theory and strings

This page was built for publication: Complex actions in two-dimensional topology change

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q4332178)