Discrete Approaches to Quantum Gravity in Four Dimensions
Abstract
The construction of a consistent theory of quantum gravity is a problem in theoretical physics that has so far defied all attempts at resolution. One ansatz to try to obtain a non-trivial quantum theory proceeds via a discretization of space-time and the Einstein action. I review here three major areas of research: gauge-theoretic approaches, both in a path-integral and a Hamiltonian formulation; quantum Regge calculus; and the method of dynamical triangulations, confining attention to work that is strictly four-dimensional, strictly discrete, and strictly quantum in nature.
- Publication:
-
Living Reviews in Relativity
- Pub Date:
- December 1998
- DOI:
- 10.12942/lrr-1998-13
- arXiv:
- arXiv:gr-qc/9805049
- Bibcode:
- 1998LRR.....1...13L
- Keywords:
-
- Wilson Loop;
- Simplicial Complex;
- Volume Operator;
- Flat Space;
- Hamiltonian Constraint;
- General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology;
- High Energy Physics - Theory
- E-Print:
- 33 pages, invited contribution to Living Reviews in Relativity