Complex actions in two-dimensional topology change

DOI10.1088/0264-9381/14/1/018MaRDI QIDQ4332178zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Jorma Louko, Rafael D. Sorkin

Publication date 19 August 1997

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

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

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)

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.

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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
• The causal set approach to quantum gravity
• Cosmology in Lorentzian Regge calculus: causality violations, massless scalar field and discrete dynamics
• Effective spin foam models for Lorentzian quantum gravity
• Time-independence of gravitational Rényi entropies and unitarity in quantum gravity
• Path integrals in quadratic gravity
• \(SU(1, 1)\) and \(SU(2)\) bundles on \(AdS_4\) and complex supergravity solutions
• Complex actions and causality violations: applications to Lorentzian quantum cosmology
• Real-time gravitational replicas: low dimensional examples
• A note on the admissibility of complex BTZ metrics
• 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
• Topology change in classical and quantum gravity
• Subadditive average distances and quantum promptness
• 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
• Putting a cap on causality violations in causal dynamical triangulations
• An integrable road to a perturbative plateau
• 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

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