Dominant topologies in Euclidean quantum gravity

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Publication:4699731




Abstract: The dominant topologies in the Euclidean path integral for quantum gravity differ sharply according on the sign of the cosmological constant. For Lambda>0, saddle points can occur only for topologies with vanishing first Betti number and finite fundamental group. For Lambda<0, on the other hand, the path integral is dominated by topologies with extremely complicated fundamental groups; while the contribution of each individual manifold is strongly suppressed, the ``density of topologies grows fast enough to overwhelm this suppression. The value Lambda=0 is thus a sort of boundary between phases in the sum over topologies. I discuss some implications for the cosmological constant problem and the Hartle-Hawking wave function.




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