1997/12/16 by Fotini Markopoulou, Lee Smolin · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #gr-qc #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.58.084032
published as Phys. Rev. D 58, 084032 (1998) · Latex 33 pages, 7 Figure, epsfig
arxiv created 1997/12/16 · arxiv updated 2016/08/24
The space of states and operators for a large class of background independent theories of quantum spacetime dynamics is defined. The SU(2) spin networks of quantum general relativity are replaced by labelled compact two-dimensional surfaces. The space of states of the theory is the direct sum of the spaces of invariant tensors of a quantum group Gq over all compact (finite genus) oriented 2-surfaces. The dynamics is background independent and locally causal. The dynamics constructs histories with discrete features of spacetime geometry such as causal structure and multifingered time. For SU(2) the theory satisfies the Bekenstein bound and the holographic hypothesis is recast in this formalism.