The geometry of dynamical triangulations

DOI10.1007/978-3-540-69427-4MaRDI QIDQ4367593zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Mauro Carfora, Annalisa Marzuoli, Jan Ambjørn

Publication date 30 November 1997

Published in Lecture Notes in Physics Monographs (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9612069, http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.264.8052

zbMATH Keywords

dynamical triangulations entropy estimates simplicial quantum gravity triangulations

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Applications of differential geometry to physics (53Z05) Applications of global analysis to the sciences (58Z05) Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to relativity and gravitational theory (83-02) Computational methods for problems pertaining to relativity and gravitational theory (83-08) Lattice gravity, Regge calculus and other discrete methods in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C27)

Abstract: We discuss the geometry of dynamical triangulations associated with 3-dimensional and 4-dimensional simplicial quantum gravity. We provide analytical expressions for the canonical partition function in both cases, and study its large volume behavior. In the space of the coupling constants of the theory, we characterize the infinite volume line and the associated critical points. The results of this analysis are found to be in excellent agreement with the MonteCarlo simulations of simplicial quantum gravity. In particular, we provide an analytical proof that simply-connected dynamically triangulated 4-manifolds undergo a higher order phase transition at a value of the inverse gravitational coupling given by 1.387, and that the nature of this transition can be concealed by a bystable behavior. A similar analysis in the 3-dimensional case characterizes a value of the critical coupling (3.845) at which hysteresis effects are present.

Review text

Triangulation methods were introduced into relativity by Tullio Regge in the 1960s. The basic idea was to approximate smooth Riemannian or Lorentzian manifolds by piecewise linear manifolds (polyhedra), thereby characterizing all basic geometric notions without refering to coordinates. Regge calculus found interesting applications not only in numerial relativity but also as a starting point for quantizing gravity. In the latter context, one uses the path integral approach to quantization. The hope is that some of the problems associated with summing over geometries can be circumvented if triangulated rather than smooth geometries are considered. A particular method to use a variant of Regge calculus for quantizing gravity is the subject of this monograph. It is known as the theory of dynamical triangulations or simplicial quantum gravity. Like any other approach to quantum gravity this method is, of course, still far away from establishing a complete theory. Therefore, it is clear that the book under review has to be considered as a status report on work in progress. Roughly speaking, a triangulation of a (topological) manifold is a homeomorphism from a polyhedron onto that manifold. The characteristic feature of a dynamical triangulation is the introduction of a piecewise linear (Riemannian) metric on the triangulated manifold that assigns the same length \(a\) to each edge. With respect to such a metric, the notions of geodesics, of parallel transport, and of curvature can then be introduced. The physical idea is to proceed along the lines of lattice statistical field theory, with the length \(a\) playing the role of the lattice spacing. In two dimensions, this allows to establish a simplicial quantum gravity theory that approaches Euclidean quantum gravity in the continuum limit \(a\to 0\). The crucial point is that the simplicial theory can be formulated in higher dimensions as well, where continuum Euclidean quantum gravity does not exist. In this book the basic features of triangulations in general and of dynamical triangulations in particular are discussed, and several analytical and numerical results on dynamical triangulations in dimensions 3 and 4 are presented. To a large extent the results have not been published before. Among other things, the authors give a constructive characterization of entropy estimates in dimensions 3 and 4, and they compare their analytical results with Monte Carlo simulations on the 3-sphere and on the 4-sphere. Also, analytical results are presented that predict a phase transition between a weak coupling and a strong coupling phase of gravity, and a kind of polymerization process is studied. Quite generally, the emphasis is on calculation techniques rather than on explaining basic ideas or on discussing physical interpretation. For this reason the book seems very well suited for readers working in the field themselves but only to a lesser extent for a general readership. As a relief for readers overstrained by mathematical technicalities, the book contains a large number of pictures, often combining in a fancy way triangulated manifolds with old paintings by Dürer or others.

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