Morse index and causal continuity. A criterion for topology change in quantum gravity

DOI10.1088/0264-9381/17/3/308MaRDI QIDQ4946995zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors

Publication date 23 March 2000

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

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9910034

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Quantization of the gravitational field (83C45)

Abstract: Studies in 1+1 dimensions suggest that causally discontinuous topology changing spacetimes are suppressed in quantum gravity. Borde and Sorkin have conjectured that causal discontinuities are associated precisely with index 1 or n-1 Morse points in topology changing spacetimes built from Morse functions. We establish a weaker form of this conjecture. Namely, if a Morse function f on a compact cobordism has critical points of index 1 or n-1, then all the Morse geometries associated with f are causally discontinuous, while if f has no critical points of index 1 or n-1, then there exist associated Morse geometries which are causally continuous.

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Cited in

(9)

• Topology change in \((2+1)\)-dimensional gravity with non-abelian Higgs field
• Gauge group and topology change
• Causal cones, cone preserving transformations and causal structure in special and general relativity
• Detecting topology change via correlations and entanglement from gauge/gravity correspondence
• Dark matter production by topology change
• Causal continuity in degenerate spacetimes
• Complex actions and causality violations: applications to Lorentzian quantum cosmology
• Topology change with Morse functions: progress on the Borde-Sorkin conjecture
• Morse-Bott inequalities, topology change and cobordisms to nothing

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