On the Causal Set-Continuum Correspondence

Abstract

We present two results which concern certain aspects of the question: when is a causal set well approximated by a Lorentzian manifold? The first result is a theorem which shows that the number-volume correspondence, if required to hold even for arbitrarily small regions, is best realized via Poisson sprinkling. The second result concerns a family of lattices in $1+1$ dimensional Minkowski space, known as Lorentzian lattices, which we show provide a much better number-volume correspondence than Poisson sprinkling for large volumes. We argue, however, that this feature should not persist in higher dimensions. We conclude by conjecturing a form of the aforementioned theorem that holds under weaker assumptions, namely that Poisson sprinkling provides the best number-volume correspondence in $3+1$ dimensions for spacetime regions with macroscopically large volumes.