Building blocks for topology change in 3D

1997/11/23 by Radu Ionicioiu, Ionicioiu, Radu
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #gr-qc #hep-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.gr-qc/9711069

12 pages, LaTeX, 13 figures, uses epsf

arxiv created 1997/11/23 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30

Abstract

We investigate topology change in 3D. Using Morse theory and handle decomposition we find the set of elementary cobordisms for 3-manifolds. These are: (i) Ø<-> S²; (ii) Σ_g <-> Σ_g+1; (iii) Σ_g1 \sqcup Σ_g2 <-> Σ_g1+g2 and they have appealing physical interpretations, e.g. Big Bang/Big Crunch, wormhole creation/annihilation and Einstein-Rosen bridge creation/annihilation, respectively. This decomposition into building blocks can be used in the path integral approach to quantum gravity in the sum over topologies.

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