Second- and first-order phase transitions in causal dynamical triangulations
Abstract
Causal dynamical triangulations (CDT) is a proposal for a theory of quantum gravity, which implements a path-integral quantization of gravity as the continuum limit of a sum over piecewise flat spacetime geometries. We use Monte Carlo simulations to analyze the phase transition lines bordering the physically interesting de Sitter phase of the four-dimensional CDT model. Using a range of numerical criteria, we present strong evidence that the so-called A-C transition is first order, while the B-C transition is second order. The presence of a second-order transition may be related to an ultraviolet fixed point of quantum gravity and thus provide the key to probing physics at and possibly beyond the Planck scale.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review D
- Pub Date:
- June 2012
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevD.85.124044
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1205.1229
- Bibcode:
- 2012PhRvD..85l4044A
- Keywords:
-
- 04.60.Gw;
- Covariant and sum-over-histories quantization;
- High Energy Physics - Theory;
- General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology;
- High Energy Physics - Lattice
- E-Print:
- 24 pages, 9 figures