arXiv subjects

Laurent Freidel

Publications and source records attributed to Laurent Freidel.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2011

Gamma ray burst delay times probe the geometry of momentum space

We study the application of the recently proposed framework of relative locality to the problem of energy dependent delays of arrival times of photons that are produced simultaneously in distant events such as gamma ray bursts. Within this framework, possible modifications of special relativity are coded in the geometry of momentum space. The metric of momentum space codes modifications in the energy momentum relation, while the connection on momentum space describes possible non-linear modifications in the laws of conservation of energy and momentum. In this paper, we study effects of first order in the inverse Planck scale, which are coded in the torsion and non-metricity of momentum space. We find that time delays of order Distance * Energies/m_p are coded in the non-metricity of momentum space. Current experimental bounds on such time delays hence bound the components of this tensor of order 1/m_p. We also find a new effect, whereby photons from distant sources can appear to arrive from angles slightly off the direction to the sources, which we call gravitational lensing. This is found to be coded into the torsion of momentum space.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

Infinite-Dimensional Representations of 2-Groups

A "2-group" is a category equipped with a multiplication satisfying laws like those of a group. Just as groups have representations on vector spaces, 2-groups have representations on "2-vector spaces", which are categories analogous to vector spaces. Unfortunately, Lie 2-groups typically have few representations on the finite-dimensional 2-vector spaces introduced by Kapranov and Voevodsky. For this reason, Crane, Sheppeard and Yetter introduced certain infinite-dimensional 2-vector spaces called "measurable categories" (since they are closely related to measurable fields of Hilbert spaces), and used these to study infinite-dimensional representations of certain Lie 2-groups. Here we continue this work. We begin with a detailed study of measurable categories. Then we give a geometrical description of the measurable representations, intertwiners and 2-intertwiners for any skeletal measurable 2-group. We study tensor products and direct sums for representations, and various concepts of subrepresentation. We describe direct sums of intertwiners, and sub-intertwiners - features not seen in ordinary group representation theory. We study irreducible and indecomposable representations and intertwiners. We also study "irretractable" representations - another feature not seen in ordinary group representation theory. Finally, we argue that measurable categories equipped with some extra structure deserve to be considered "separable 2-Hilbert spaces", and compare this idea to a tentative definition of 2-Hilbert spaces as representation categories of commutative von Neumann algebras.

math.QA↗

arXiv2011

The principle of relative locality

We propose a deepening of the relativity principle according to which the invariant arena for non-quantum physics is a phase space rather than spacetime. Descriptions of particles propagating and interacting in spacetimes are constructed by observers, but different observers, separated from each other by translations, construct different spacetime projections from the invariant phase space. Nonetheless, all observers agree that interactions are local in the spacetime coordinates constructed by observers local to them. This framework, in which absolute locality is replaced by relative locality, results from deforming momentum space, just as the passage from absolute to relative simultaneity results from deforming the linear addition of velocities. Different aspects of momentum space geometry, such as its curvature, torsion and non-metricity, are reflected in different kinds of deformations of the energy-momentum conservation laws. These are in principle all measurable by appropriate experiments. We also discuss a natural set of physical hypotheses which singles out the cases of momentum space with a metric compatible connection and constant curvature.

hep-th↗

arXiv2010

U(N) tools for Loop Quantum Gravity: The Return of the Spinor

We explore the classical setting for the U(N) framework for SU(2) intertwiners for loop quantum gravity (LQG) and describe the corresponding phase space in terms of spinors with appropriate constraints. We show how its quantization leads back to the standard Hilbert space of intertwiner states defined as holomorphic functionals. We then explain how to glue these intertwiners states in order to construct spin network states as wave-functions on the spinor phase space. In particular, we translate the usual loop gravity holonomy observables to our classical framework. Finally, we propose how to derive our phase space structure from an action principle which induces non-trivial dynamics for the spin network states. We conclude by applying explicitly our framework to states living on the simple 2-vertex graph and discuss the properties of the resulting Hamiltonian.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2010

Twisted geometries: A geometric parametrisation of SU(2) phase space

A cornerstone of the loop quantum gravity program is the fact that the phase space of general relativity on a fixed graph can be described by a product of SU(2) cotangent bundles per edge. In this paper we show how to parametrize this phase space in terms of quantities describing the intrinsic and extrinsic geometry of the triangulation dual to the graph. These are defined by the assignment to each triangle of its area, the two unit normals as seen from the two polyhedra sharing it, and an additional angle related to the extrinsic curvature. These quantities do not define a Regge geometry, since they include extrinsic data, but a looser notion of discrete geometry which is twisted in the sense that it is locally well-defined, but the local patches lack a consistent gluing among each other. We give the Poisson brackets among the new variables, and exhibit a symplectomorphism which maps them into the Poisson brackets of loop gravity. The new parametrization has the advantage of a simple description of the gauge-invariant reduced phase space, which is given by a product of phase spaces associated to edges and vertices, and it also provides an abelianisation of the SU(2) connection. The results are relevant for the construction of coherent states, and as a byproduct, contribute to clarify the connection between loop gravity and its subset corresponding to Regge geometries.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2010

From twistors to twisted geometries

In a previous paper we showed that the phase space of loop quantum gravity on a fixed graph can be parametrized in terms of twisted geometries, quantities describing the intrinsic and extrinsic discrete geometry of a cellular decomposition dual to the graph. Here we unravel the origin of the phase space from a geometric interpretation of twistors.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2010

U(N) Coherent States for Loop Quantum Gravity

We investigate the geometry of the space of N-valent SU(2)-intertwiners. We propose a new set of holomorphic operators acting on this space and a new set of coherent states which are covariant under U(N) transformations. These states are labeled by elements of the Grassmannian Gr(N,2), they possess a direct geometrical interpretation in terms of framed polyhedra and are shown to be related to the well-known coherent intertwiners.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2010

Holomorphic Factorization for a Quantum Tetrahedron

We provide a holomorphic description of the Hilbert space H(j_1,..,j_n) of SU(2)-invariant tensors (intertwiners) and establish a holomorphically factorized formula for the decomposition of identity in H(j_1,..,j_n). Interestingly, the integration kernel that appears in the decomposition formula turns out to be the n-point function of bulk/boundary dualities of string theory. Our results provide a new interpretation for this quantity as being, in the limit of large conformal dimensions, the exponential of the Kahler potential of the symplectic manifold whose quantization gives H(j_1,..,j_n). For the case n=4, the symplectic manifold in question has the interpretation of the space of "shapes" of a geometric tetrahedron with fixed face areas, and our results provide a description for the quantum tetrahedron in terms of holomorphic coherent states. We describe how the holomorphic intertwiners are related to the usual real ones by computing their overlap. The semi-classical analysis of these overlap coefficients in the case of large spins allows us to obtain an explicit relation between the real and holomorphic description of the space of shapes of the tetrahedron. Our results are of direct relevance for the subjects of loop quantum gravity and spin foams, but also add an interesting new twist to the story of the bulk/boundary correspondence.

hep-th↗

arXiv2009

The Fine Structure of SU(2) Intertwiners from U(N) Representations

In this work we study the Hilbert space space of N-valent SU(2) intertwiners with fixed total spin, which can be identified, at the classical level, with a space of convex polyhedra with N face and fixed total boundary area. We show that this Hilbert space provides, quite remarkably, an irreducible representation of the U(N) group. This gives us therefore a precise identification of U(N) as a group of area preserving diffeomorphism of polyhedral spheres. We use this results to get new closed formulae for the black hole entropy in loop quantum gravity.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2009

Inner brane: A D3-brane in the Nappi-Witten model from an inner group automorphism

WZW models are abstract conformal field theories with an infinite dimensional symmetry which accounts for their integrability, and at the same time they have a sigma model description of closed string propagation on group manifolds which, in turn, endows the models with an intuitive geometric meaning. We exploit this dual algebraic and geometric property of WZW models to construct an explicit example of a field-dependent reflection matrix for open-strings in Nappi-Witten model. Demanding the momentum outflow at the boundary to be zero determines a certain combination of the left and right chiral currents at the boundary. This same reflection matrix is obtained algebraically from an inner automorphism, giving rise to a space-filling D-brane. Half of the infinite dimensional affine Kac-Moody symmetry present in the closed-string theory is preserved by this unique combination of the left and the right chiral currents. The OPEs of these boundary currents are computed explicitly and they are showed to obey the same current algebra as those of the closed-string chiral currents. Different choices of the inner automorphisms correspond to different background gauge field configurations. Only those B-field configurations, and the corresponding D-branes, that preserve the diagonal part of the infinite dimensional chiral algebras are allowed. In this way the existence of the D-branes in curved spaces is further constrained by the underlying symmetry of the ambient spacetime.

hep-th↗

arXiv2009

Group field theory renormalization - the 3d case: power counting of divergences

We take the first steps in a systematic study of Group Field Theory renormalization, focusing on the Boulatov model for 3D quantum gravity. We define an algorithm for constructing the 2D triangulations that characterize the boundary of the 3D bubbles, where divergences are located, of an arbitrary 3D GFT Feynman diagram. We then identify a special class of graphs for which a complete contraction procedure is possible, and prove, for these, a complete power counting. These results represent important progress towards understanding the origin of the continuum and manifold-like appearance of quantum spacetime at low energies, and of its topology, in a GFT framework.

hep-th↗

arXiv2009

Quantum geometry from phase space reduction

In this work we give an explicit isomorphism between the usual spin network basis and the direct quantization of the reduced phase space of tetrahedra. The main outcome is a formula that describes the space of SU(2) invariant states by an integral over coherent states satisfying the closure constraint exactly, or equivalently, as an integral over the space of classical tetrahedra. This provides an explicit realization of theorems by Guillemin--Sternberg and Hall that describe the commutation of quantization and reduction. In the final part of the paper, we use our result to express the FK spin foam model as an integral over classical tetrahedra and the asymptotics of the vertex amplitude is determined.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2008

Modified gravity without new degrees of freedom

We show that the new type of "non-metric" gravity theories introduced independently by Bengtsson and Krasnov can in fact be reexpressed explicitely as a metrical theory coupled to an auxiliary field. We unravel why such theories possess only one propagating graviton by looking at the quadratic perturbation around a fixed solution. And we give a general construction principle with a new class of example of such modified gravity theories still possessing only two propagating degrees of freedom.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2008

On the semiclassical limit of 4d spin foam models

We study the semiclassical properties of the Riemannian spin foam models with Immirzi parameter that are constructed via coherent states. We show that in the semiclassical limit the quantum spin foam amplitudes of an arbitrary triangulation are exponentially suppressed, if the face spins do not correspond to a discrete geometry. When they do arise from a geometry, the amplitudes reduce to the exponential of i times the Regge action. Remarkably, the dependence on the Immirzi parameter disappears in this limit.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2008

Path integral representation of spin foam models of 4d gravity

We give a unified description of all recent spin foam models introduced by Engle, Livine, Pereira and Rovelli (ELPR) and by Freidel and Krasnov (FK). We show that the FK models are, for all values of the Immirzi parameter, equivalent to path integrals of a discrete theory and we provide an explicit formula for the associated actions. We discuss the relation between the FK and ELPR models and also study the corresponding boundary states. For general Immirzi parameter, these are given by Alexandrov's and Livine's SO(4) projected states. For 0 <= gamma < 1, the states can be restricted to SU(2) spin networks.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2008

A New Spin Foam Model for 4d Gravity

Starting from Plebanski formulation of gravity as a constrained BF theory we propose a new spin foam model for 4d Riemannian quantum gravity that generalises the well-known Barrett-Crane model and resolves the inherent to it ultra-locality problem. The BF formulation of 4d gravity possesses two sectors: gravitational and topological ones. The model presented here is shown to give a quantization of the gravitational sector, and is dual to the recently proposed spin foam model of Engle et al. which, we show, corresponds to the topological sector. Our methods allow us to introduce the Immirzi parameter into the framework of spin foam quantisation. We generalize some of our considerations to the Lorentzian setting and obtain a new spin foam model in that context as well.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2008

Reconstructing AdS/CFT

In this note we clarify the dictionary between pure quantum gravity on the bulk in the presence of a cosmological constant and a CFT on the boundary. We show for instance that there is a general correspondence between quantum gravity ``radial states'' and a pair of CFT's. Restricting to one CFT is argued to correspond to states possessing an asymptotic infinity. This point of view allows us to address the problem of reconstructing the bulk from the boundary. And in the second part of this paper we present an explicit formula which gives, from the partition function of any 2 dimensional conformal field theory, a wave functional solution to the 3-dimensional Wheeler-DeWitt equation. This establishes at the quantum level a precise dictionary between 2d CFT and pure gravity.

hep-th↗

arXiv2008

On the spectrum of pure Yang-Mills theory

In this note we discuss the wave functional approach to the spectrum of pure Yang-Mills theory in 2+1 and 3+1 dimensions by highlighting the issues of dynamical mass generation and the role played by the kinetic term. We extrapolate our recent analysis of 2+1 Yang-Mills theory to 3+1 dimensions, and under certain heuristic assumptions use a simple quasi-Gaussian vacuum wavefunctional for 3+1 Yang-Mills theory for a preliminary study of the spectrum of glueballs which nicely fits the available lattice simulations.

hep-th↗