PIRSA:19100084

Dimensionally Restricted Causal Sets

Cunningham, W. (2019). Dimensionally Restricted Causal Sets. Perimeter Institute. https://pirsa.org/19100084

Cunningham, William. Dimensionally Restricted Causal Sets. Perimeter Institute, Oct. 31, 2019, https://pirsa.org/19100084 

          @misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:19100084,
            doi = {10.48660/19100084},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/19100084},
            author = {Cunningham, William},
            keywords = {Quantum Gravity},
            language = {en},
            title = {Dimensionally Restricted Causal Sets},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute},
            year = {2019},
            month = {oct},
            note = {PIRSA:19100084 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}}
          }

William Cunningham Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics

DOI 10.48660/19100084
Collection
Talk Type Scientific Series
Subject

Abstract

We study dimensionally restricted non-perturbative causal set quantum dynamics in two and three spacetime dimensions with non-trivial global spatial topology.  The causal set sample space is generated from causal embeddings into latticisations of flat background spacetimes with global spatial topology S^1 and T^2 in two and three dimensions, respectively. The quantum gravity partition function over these sample spaces is studied using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulations via an analytic continuation of a parameter \beta analogous to an inverse temperature. In both two and three dimensions we find a phase transition that separates the dominance of the action from that of the entropy. The action dominated phase is characterised by "layered" posets with a high degree of connectivity, while the causal sets in the entropy dominated phase are manifold-like. These results are similar in character to those obtained for topologically trivial causal set dynamics over the sample space of 2-orders. The current simulations use a newly developed framework for causal set MCMC calculations, and provide the first implementation of a three-dimensional causal set dynamics.

 

arXiv paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1908.11647