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From discrete causal sets to a spacetime continuum

ORAL

Abstract

We understand reasonably well how to construct a discrete causal set that approximates a given spacetime manifold. The vast majority of causal sets, though, are not at all continuum-like, and if we take the discrete description to be fundamental, we must somehow suppress these "bad" sets. I will discuss some recent progress in showing that a very large class of non-manifoldlike sets is extremely strongly suppressed in the ordinary gravitational path integral, perhaps allowing us to recover the observed continuum structure of spacetime from the quantum theory of discrete structures.

* This work was supported in part by Department of Energy grant DE-FG02-91ER40674.

Publication: P. Carlip, S. Carlip, and S. Surya, "Path integral suppression of badly behaved causal sets," Class. Quant. Grav. 40 (2023) 095004, arXiv:2209.00327 [gr-qc]

P. Carlip, S. Carlip, and S. Surya, "The Einstein-Hilbert Action for Entropically Dominant Causal Sets," arXiv:2311.18238 [gr-qc]

Presenters

  • Steven J Carlip

    University of California, Davis

Authors

  • Steven J Carlip

    University of California, Davis