1996/11/30 by Ignatios Antoniadis, I. Antoniadis, P. O. Mazur +3 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #gr-qc #hep-lat #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/s0370-2693(96)01663-2
published as Phys.Lett. B394 (1997) 49-56 · 15 pages, LaTeX, 2 PS-figures, references and typographical errors corrected (published version to appear in Phys. Lett. B)
arxiv created 1997/01/03 · openalex publication_date 1997/02/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present a simple argument which determines the critical value of the anomaly coefficient in four dimensional conformal factor quantum gravity, at which a phase transition between a smooth and elongated phase should occur. The argument is based on the contribution of singular configurations ("spikes") which dominate the partition function in the infrared. The critical value is the analog of c=1 in the theory of random surfaces, and the phase transition is similar to the Berezenskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. The critical value we obtain is in agreement with the previous canonical analysis of physical states of the conformal factor and may explain why a smooth phase of quantum gravity has not yet been observed in simplicial simulations. We also rederive the scaling relations in the smooth phase in light of this determination of the critical coupling.