Simone Mercuri

Fermions in the Ashtekar-Barbero connection formalism for arbitrary values of the Immirzi parameter

The Ashtekar-Barbero-Immirzi formulation of general relativity is extended to include spinor matter fields. Our formulation applies to generic values of the Immirzi parameter and reduces to the Ashtekar-Romano-Tate approach when the Immirzi parameter is taken equal to the imaginary unit. The dynamics of the gravity-fermions coupled system is described by the Holst plus Dirac action with a nonminimal coupling term. The nonminimal interaction together with the Holst modification to the Hilbert-Palatini action reconstruct the Nieh-Yan invariant, so that the effective action coming out is the one of Einstein-Cartan theory with a typical Fermi-like interaction term: in spite of the presence of spinor matter fields, the Immirzi parameter plays no role in the classical effective dynamics and results to be only a multiplicative factor in front of a total divergence. We reduce the total action of the theory to the sum of dynamically independent Ashtekar-Romano-Tate actions for self and anti-self-dual connections, with different weights depending on the Immirzi parameter. This allows to calculate the constraints of the complete theory in a simple way, it is only necessary to realize that the Barbero-Immirzi connection is a weighted sum of the self and anti-self-dual Ashtekar connections. Finally the obtained constraints for the separated action result to be polynomial in terms of the self and anti-self-dual connections, this could have implications in the inclusion of spinor matter in the framework of nonperturbative quantum gravity.

Interaction of the Barbero-Immirzi field with matter and pseudoscalar perturbations

In loop quantum gravity the classical point of departure is the Einstein-Hilbert action modified by the addition of the so-called Holst term. Classically, this term does not affect the equations of motion, but it induces a well-known quantization ambiguity in the quantum theory, parametrized by the Barbero-Immirzi parameter. Recently, it has been suggested to promote the Barbero-Immirzi parameter to a field. The resulting theory, obtainable starting from the usual Holst action, is general relativity coupled to a pseudoscalar field. However, this theory turns out to have an unconventional kinetic term for the Barbero-Immirzi field and a rather unnatural coupling with fermions. The main goal of this work is twofold: First, to propose a further generalization of the Holst action, which yields a theory of gravity and matter with a more natural coupling to the Barbero-Immirzi field; second, to study the possible implications for cosmology correlated to the existence of this new pseudoscalar field.

From the Einstein-Cartan to the Ashtekar-Barbero canonical constraints, passing through the Nieh-Yan functional

The Ashtekar-Barbero constraints for General Relativity with fermions are derived from the Einstein-Cartan canonical theory rescaling the state functional of the gravity-spinor coupled system by the exponential of the Nieh-Yan functional. A one parameter quantization ambiguity naturally appears and can be associated with the Immirzi parameter.

Introduction to Loop Quantum Gravity

The questions I have been asked during the 5th International School on Field Theory and Gravitation, have compelled me to give an account of the premises that I consider important for a beginners approach to Loop Quantum Gravity. After a description of some general arguments and an introduction to the canonical theory of gravity, I review the background independent approach to quantum gravity, giving only a brief survey of Loop Quantum Gravity.

DUALISM BETWEEN PHYSICAL FRAMES AND TIME IN QUANTUM GRAVITY

In this work we present a discussion of the existing links between the procedures of endowing the quantum gravity with a real time and of including in the theory a physical reference frame. More precisely, as a first step, we develop the canonical quantum dynamics, starting from the Einstein equations in presence of a dust fluid and arrive at a Schrodinger evolution. Then, by fixing the lapse function in the path-integral of gravity, we get a Schrodinger quantum dynamics, of which eigenvalues problem provides the appearance of a dust fluid in the classical limit. The main issue of our analysis is to claim that a theory, in which the time displacement invariance, on a quantum level, is broken, is indistinguishable from a theory for which this symmetry holds, but a real reference fluid is included.

NIEH-YAN INVARIANT AND FERMIONS IN ASHTEKAR-BARBERO-IMMIRZI FORMALISM

In order to introduce an interaction between gravity and fermions in the Ashtekar-Barbero-Immirzi formalism without affecting classical dynamics a non-minimal term is necessary. The non-minimal term together with the Holst modification to the Hilbert-Palatini action reconstruct the Nieh-Yan invariant. As a consequence the Immirzi parameter, differently from the minimal coupling approach, does not affect the classical dynamics, which is described by the Einstein-Cartan action.

ON THE FRAME FIXING IN QUANTUM GRAVITY

We provide a discussion about the necessity to fix the reference frame before quantizing the gravitational field. Our presentation is based on stressing how the 3+1-slicing of the space time becomes an ambiguous procedure as referred to a quantum 4-metric.

Is Torsion a Fundamental Physical Field

The local Lorentz group is introduced in flat space-time, where the resulting Dirac and Yang-Mills equations are found, and then generalized to curved space-time: if matter is neglected, the Lorentz connection is identified with the contortion field, while, if matter is taken into account, both the Lorentz connection and the spinor axial current are illustrated to contribute to the torsion of space-time.