2009/04/30 by David Rideout, D Rideout, Petros Wallden +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1742-6596/174/1/012017
published as J.Phys.Conf.Ser.174:012017,2009 · 21 pages, 21 figures; proceedings contribution for DICE 2008, to appear in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
arxiv created 2009/04/30 · openalex publication_date 2009/06/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
There are numerous indications that a discrete substratum underlies continuum spacetime. Any fundamentally discrete approach to quantum gravity must provide some prescription for how continuum properties emerge from the underlying discreteness. The causal set approach, in which the fundamental relation is based upon causality, finds it easy to reproduce timelike distances, but has a more difficult time with spatial distance, due to the unique combination of Lorentz invariance and discreteness within that approach. We describe a method to deduce spatial distances from a causal set. In addition, we sketch how one might use an important ingredient in deducing spatial distance, the ' n-link ', to deduce whether a given causal set is likely to faithfully embed into a contintuum spacetime.