Norbert Bodendorfer

New Variables for Classical and Quantum Gravity in all Dimensions I. Hamiltonian Analysis

We rederive the results of our companion paper, for matching space–time and internal signature, by applying in detail the Dirac algorithm to the Palatini action. While the constraint set of the Palatini action contains second class constraints, by an appeal to the method of gauge unfixing, we map the second class system to an equivalent first class system which turns out to be identical to the first class constraint system obtained via the extension of the ADM phase space performed in our companion paper. Central to our analysis is again the appropriate treatment of the simplicity constraint. Remarkably, the simplicity constraint invariant extension of the Hamiltonian constraint, that is a necessary step in the gauge unfixing procedure, involves a correction term which is precisely the one found in the companion paper and which makes sure that the Hamiltonian constraint derived from the Palatini Lagrangian coincides with the ADM Hamiltonian constraint when Gaus and simplicity constraints are satisfied. We therefore have rederived our new connection formulation of general relativity from an independent starting point, thus confirming the consistency of this framework.

Imaginary action, spinfoam asymptotics and the ?transplanckian? regime of loop quantum gravity

It was recently noted that the on-shell Einstein?Hilbert action with York?Gibbons?Hawking boundary term has an imaginary part, proportional to the area of the codimension-2 surfaces on which the boundary normal becomes null. We discuss the extension of this result to first-order formulations of gravity. As a side effect, we settle the issue of the Holst modification versus the Nieh?Yan density by demanding a variational principle with suitable boundary conditions. We then set out to find the imaginary action in the large-spin 4-simplex limit of the Lorentzian EPRL/FK spinfoam. It turns out that the spinfoam?s effective action indeed has the correct imaginary part, but only if the Barbero?Immirzi parameter ? is set to ?i after the quantum calculation. We point out an agreement between this effective action and a recent black hole state-counting calculation in the same limit. Finally, we propose that the large-spin limit of loop quantum gravity can be viewed as a high-energy ?transplanckian? regime.

Towards loop quantum supergravity (LQSG): I. Rarita–Schwinger sector

In our companion papers, we managed to derive a connection formulation of Lorentzian general relativity in D + 1 dimensions with compact gauge group SO(D + 1) such that the connection is Poisson-commuting, which implies that loop quantum gravity quantization methods apply. We also provided the coupling to standard matter. In this paper, we extend our methods to derive a connection formulation of a large class of Lorentzian signature supergravity theories, in particular 11 D SUGRA and 4 D, N = 8 SUGRA, which was in fact the motivation to consider higher dimensions. Starting from a Hamiltonian formulation in the time gauge which yields a Spin(D) theory, a major challenge is to extend the internal gauge group to Spin(D + 1) in the presence of the Rarita–Schwinger field. This is non-trivial because SUSY typically requires the Rarita–Schwinger field to be a Majorana fermion for the Lorentzian Clifford algebra and Majorana representations of the Clifford algebra are not available in the same spacetime dimension for both Lorentzian and Euclidean signatures. We resolve the arising tension and provide a background-independent representation of the non-trivial Dirac antibracket *-algebra for the Majorana field which significantly differs from the analogous construction for Dirac fields already available in the literature.

Towards loop quantum supergravity (LQSG): II. p-form sector

In our companion paper, we focused on the quantization of the Rarita–Schwinger sector of supergravity theories in various dimensions by using an extension of loop quantum gravity to all spacetime dimensions. In this paper, we extend this analysis by considering the quantization of additional bosonic fields necessary to obtain a complete SUSY multiplet next to graviton and gravitino in various dimensions. As a generic example, we study concretely the quantization of the 3-index photon of minimal 11d SUGRA, but our methods easily extend to more general p-form fields. Due to the presence of a Chern–Simons term for the 3-index photon, which is due to local SUSY, the theory is self-interacting and its quantization far from straightforward. Nevertheless, we show that a reduced phase space quantization with respect to the 3-index photon Gaus constraint is possible. Specifically, the Weyl algebra of observables, which deviates from the usual CCR Weyl algebras by an interesting twist contribution proportional to the level of the Chern–Simons theory, admits a background independent state of the Narnhofer–Thirring type.

Towards Loop Quantum Supergravity (LQSG)

Abstract Should nature be supersymmetric, then it will be described by Quantum Supergravity at least in some energy regimes. The currently most advanced description of Quantum Supergravity and beyond is Superstring Theory/M-Theory in 10/11 dimensions. String Theory is a top-to-bottom approach to Quantum Supergravity in that it postulates a new object, the string, from which classical Supergravity emerges as a low energy limit. On the other hand, one may try more traditional bottom-to-top routes and apply the techniques of Quantum Field Theory. Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) is a manifestly background independent and non-perturbative approach to the quantisation of classical General Relativity, however, so far mostly without supersymmetry. The main obstacle to the extension of the techniques of LQG to the quantisation of higher dimensional Supergravity is that LQG rests on a specific connection formulation of General Relativity which exists only in D + 1 = 4 dimensions. In this Letter we introduce a new connection formulation of General Relativity which exists in all space–time dimensions. We show that all LQG techniques developed in D + 1 = 4 can be transferred to the new variables in all dimensions and describe how they can be generalised to the new types of fields that appear in Supergravity theories as compared to standard matter, specifically Rarita–Schwinger and p-form gauge fields.

General relativity in the radial gauge: Reduced phase space and canonical structure

Firstly, we present a reformulation of the standard canonical approach to spherically symmetric systems in which the radial gauge is imposed. This is done via the gauge unfixing techniques, which serves as their exposition in the context of the radial gauge. Secondly, we apply the same techniques to the full theory, without assuming spherical symmetry, resulting in a reduced phase space description of General Relativity. The canonical structure of the theory is analysed. In a companion paper a quantization of the reduced phase space is presented. The construction is well suited for the treatment of spherically symmetric situations and allows for a quantum definition thereof.

Wald entropy formula and loop quantum gravity

We outline how the Wald entropy formula naturally arises in loop quantum gravity based on recently introduced dimension-independent connection variables. The key observation is that in a loop quantization of a generalized gravity theory, the analog of the area operator turns out to measure, morally speaking, the Wald entropy rather than the area. We discuss the explicit example of (higher-dimensional) Lanczos-Lovelock gravity and comment on recent work on finding the correct numerical prefactor of the entropy by comparing it to a semiclassical effective action.

An embedding of loop quantum cosmology in (b,v) variables into a full theory context

Loop quantum cosmology in (b, v) variables, which is governed by a unit step size difference equation, is embedded into a full theory context based on similar variables. A full theory context here means a theory of quantum gravity arrived at using the quantisation techniques used in loop quantum gravity, however based on a different choice of elementary variables and classical gauge fixing suggested by loop quantum cosmology. From the full theory perspective, the symmetry reduction is characterised by the vanishing of certain phase space functions which are implemented as operator equations in the quantum theory. The loop quantum cosmology dynamics arise as the action of the full theory Hamiltonian on maximally coarse states in the kernel of the reduction constraints. An application of this reduction procedure to spherical symmetry is also sketched, with similar results, but only one canonical pair in (b, v) form.

On the relation between reduced quantisation and quantum reduction for spherical symmetry in loop quantum gravity

Building on a recent proposal for a quantum reduction to spherical symmetry from full loop quantum gravity, we investigate the relation between a quantisation of spherically symmetric general relativity and a reduction at the quantum level. To this end, we generalise the previously proposed quantum reduction by dropping the gauge fixing condition on the radial diffeomorphisms, thus allowing to make direct contact between previous work on reduced quantisation. A dictionary between spherically symmetric variables and observables with respect to the reduction constraints in the full theory is discussed, as well as an embedding of reduced quantum states to a sub sector of the quantum symmetry reduced full theory states. On this full theory sub sector, the quantum algebra of the mentioned observables is computed and shown to qualitatively reproduce the quantum algebra of the reduced variables in the large quantum number limit for a specific choice of regularisation. Insufficiencies in recovering the reduced algebra quantitatively from the full theory are attributed to the oversimplified full theory quantum states we use.

On a partially reduced phase space quantization of general relativity conformally coupled to a scalar field

The purpose of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, after a thorough review of the matter free case, we supplement the derivations in our companion paper on ‘loop quantum gravity without the Hamiltonian constraint’ with calculational details and extend the results to standard model matter, a cosmological constant, and non-compact spatial slices. On the other hand, we provide a discussion on the role of observables, focused on the situation of a symmetry exchange, which is key to our derivation. Furthermore, we comment on the relation of our model to reduced phase space quantizations based on deparametrization.