1997/08/31 by Steven Carlip · 3 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Classical mechanics #Cosmological constant #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Divergence (linguistics) #Lambda #Mathematical physics #Mathematics #Network topology #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #Partition function (quantum field theory) #Path integral formulation #Physics #Quantum #Quantum gravity #Quantum mechanics #Saddle #Saddle point #Spacetime #Theoretical physics #gr-qc #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.79.4071
published as Phys.Rev.Lett.79:4071-4074,1997 · 8 pages, LaTeX. Two minor revisions (scaling parameter corrected with new reference; qualification added on Borel summability)
arxiv created 1997/09/25 · openalex publication_date 1997/11/24 · arxiv updated 2010/04/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
In the saddle point approximation, the Euclidean path integral for quantum gravity closely resembles a thermodynamic partition function, with the cosmological constant \ensuremathΛ playing the role of temperature and the ``density of topologies'' acting as an effective density of states. For \ensuremathΛ<0, the density of topologies grows superexponentially, and the sum over topologies diverges. In thermodynamics, such a divergence can signal the existence of a maximum temperature. The same may be true in quantum gravity: the effective cosmological constant may be driven to zero by a rapid rise in the density of topologies.