In this paper, we apply a recently proposed numerical algorithm for finding stationary phase points in spin foam amplitudes. We study a spin foam amplitude with three vertices and a bulk face in 4d BF theory. We fix the boundary coherent states to three possible triangulations, one with zero deficit angle on the bulk face and two with non-zero deficit angle. We compute the amplitude numerically and we find a stationary phase point already at low spins in all the three cases. We comment on how this result contrasts with the claims of flatness problem in spin foam theories. We point out where these arguments may be misleading and we propose further computations to definitively answer the question.
Local flatness is a property shared by all the spin foam models. It ensures that the theory's fundamental building blocks are flat by requiring locally trivial parallel transport. In the context of simplicial Lorentzian spin foam theory, we show that local flatness is the main responsible for the emergence of geometry independently of the details of the spin foam model. We discuss the asymptotic analysis of the EPRL spin foam amplitudes in the large quantum number regime, highlighting the interplay with local flatness.
We present $\mathtt{\text{sl2cfoam-next}}$, a high-performance software library for computing Lorentzian EPRL spin foam amplitudes. The library improves on previous codes by many orders of magnitude in single-core performance, can be parallelized on a large number of CPUs and on the GPU, and can be used interactively. We describe the techniques used in the code and provide many usage examples. As first applications, we use $\mathtt{\text{sl2cfoam-next}}$ to complete the numerical test of the Lorentzian single-vertex asymptotics and to confirm the presence of the "flatness problem" of spin foam…
Spin foam models are an approach to quantum gravity based on the concept of sum over states, which aims to describe quantum spacetime dynamics in a way that its parent framework, loop quantum gravity, has not as of yet succeeded. Since these models' relation to classical Einstein gravity is not explicit, an important test of their viabilitiy is the study of asymptotics - the classical theory should be obtained in a limit where quantum effects are negligible, taken to be the limit of large triangle areas in a triangulated manifold with boundary. In this paper we will briefly introduce the EPRL/…
A number of approaches to four-dimensional quantum gravity, such as loop quantum gravity and holography, situate areas as their fundamental variables. However, this choice of kinematics can easily lead to gravitational dynamics peaked on flat spacetimes. We show that this is due to how regions are glued in the gravitational path integral via a discrete spin foam model. We introduce a family of `effective' spin foam models that incorporate a quantum area spectrum, impose gluing constraints as strongly as possible, and leverage the discrete general relativity action to specify amplitudes. These …
The first computation of a spin foam dynamics that provides a test of the quantum equations of motions of gravity is presented. Specifically, a triangulation that includes an inner edge is treated. The computation leverages the recently introduced effective spin foam models, which are particularly numerically efficient. Previous work has raised the concern of a flatness problem in spin foam dynamics, identifying the potential for the dynamics to lead to flat geometries in the small $\hbar$ semiclassical limit. The numerical results presented here expose a rich semiclassical regime, but one tha…
We numerically estimate the divergence of several two-vertex diagrams that contribute to the radiative corrections for the Lorentzian EPRL spin foam propagator. We compute the amplitudes as functions of a homogeneous cutoff over the bulk quantum numbers, fixed boundary data, and different Immirzi parameters, and find that for a class of two-vertex diagrams, those with fewer than six internal faces are convergent. The calculations are done with the numerical framework sl2cfoam-next.
Building on recent advances in defining Wilsonian RG flows, and in particular the notion of scales, for background-independent theories, we present a first investigation of the renormalization of the 4d spin foam path integral for quantum gravity, both analytically and numerically. Focussing on a specific truncation of the model using a hypercubic lattice, we compute the RG flow and find strong indications for a phase transition, as well as an interesting interplay between the different observed phases and the (broken) diffeomorphism symmetry of the model. Most notably, it appears that the cri…
The intricated combinatorial structure and the non-compactness of the Lorentz group have always made the computation of $SL(2,\mathbb{C})$ EPRL spin foam transition amplitudes a very hard and resource demanding task. With \texttt{sl2cfoam} we provide a C-coded library for the evaluation of the Lorentzian EPRL vertex amplitude. We provide a tool to compute the Lorentzian EPRL 4-simplex vertex amplitude in the intertwiner basis and some utilities to evaluate SU(2) invariants, booster functions and $SL(2,\mathbb{C})$ Clebsch-Gordan coefficients. We discuss the data storage, parallelizations, time…
We numerically study Barrett-Crane models of Riemannian quantum gravity. We have extended the existing numerical techniques to handle q-deformed models and arbitrary space-time triangulations. We present and interpret expectation values of a few selected observables for each model, including a spin-spin correlation function which gives insight into the behaviour of the models. We find the surprising result that, as the deformation parameter q goes to 1 through roots of unity, the limit is discontinuous.
We present the first numerical calculation of the 4D Euclidean spin foam vertex amplitude for vertices with hypercubic combinatorics. Concretely, we compute the amplitude for coherent boundary data peaked on cuboid and frustum shapes. We present the numerical algorithms to explicitly compute the vertex amplitude and compare the results in different cases to the semi-classical approximation of the amplitude. Overall we find good qualitative agreement of the amplitudes and evidence of convergence of the asymptotic formula to the full amplitude already at fairly small spins, yet also differences …
Spin foam theory is a concrete framework for quantum gravity where numerical calculations of transition amplitudes are possible. Recently, the field became very active, but the entry barrier is steep, mainly because of its unusual language and notions scattered around the literature. This paper is a pedagogical guide to spin foam transition amplitude calculations. We show how to write an EPRL-FK transition amplitude, from the definition of the 2-complex to its numerical implementation using \texttt{sl2cfoam-next}. We guide the reader using an explicit example balancing mathematical rigor with …
We describe here some new results concerning the Lorentzian Barrett-Crane model, a well-known spin foam formulation of quantum gravity. Generalizing an existing finiteness result, we provide a concise proof of finiteness of the partition function associated to all non-degenerate triangulations of 4-manifolds and for a class of degenerate triangulations not previously shown. This is accomplished by a suitable re-factoring and re-ordering of integration, through which a large set of variables can be eliminated. The resulting formulation can be interpreted as a ``dual variables'' model that uses …
It is highly plausible that the region of space-time far from an isolated gravitating body is, in some sense, asymptotically Minkowskian. However theoretical studies of the full nonlinear theory, initiated by Bondi et al. (1962), Sachs (1962) and Newman & Unti (1962), rely on careful, clever, a-priori choices of chart (and tetrad) and so are not readily accessible to the numerical relativist, who chooses her/his chart on the basis of quite different grounds. This paper seeks to close this gap. Starting from data available in a typical numerical evolution, we construct a chart and tetrad which …
We report on the numerical analysis of the area correlations in spin foam gravity on a single 4-simplex considered by Rovelli in PRL 97 (2006) 151301. We compare the asymptotics and confirm the inverse squared distance leading behaviour at large scales. This supports the recent advances on testing the semiclassical limit of the theory. Furthermore, we show that the microscopic discreteness of the theory dynamically suppresses and regularizes the correlations at the Planck scale.
In this article we consider physical states in the hypercuboidal truncation of the EPRL-FK spin foam quantum gravity model. In particular, these states are defined on graphs which allow considering the entanglement entropy (EE) associated to the bipartition of space. We compute the EE numerically for some examples, and find that it depends on the coupling constants within the theory. We also find that there appears a maximum of the EE within the region of the coupling constant containing the non-Gaussian fixed point of the RG flow of the truncated model. We discuss the relation of this behavio…
Using numerical calculations, we compare three versions of the Barrett-Crane model of 4-dimensional Riemannian quantum gravity. In the version with face and edge amplitudes as described by De Pietri, Freidel, Krasnov, and Rovelli, we show the partition function diverges very rapidly for many triangulated 4-manifolds. In the version with modified face and edge amplitudes due to Perez and Rovelli, we show the partition function converges so rapidly that the sum is dominated by spin foams where all the spins labelling faces are zero except for small, widely separated islands of higher spin. We al…
Numerical methods in spin-foam models have significantly advanced in the last few years, yet challenges remain in efficiently extracting results for amplitudes with many quantum degrees of freedom. In this paper we sketch a proposal for a ``hybrid algorithm'' that would use both the full quantum amplitude and its asymptotic approximation in the relevant regimes. As a first step towards the algorithm, we derive a new representation of the partition function where each spin-foam vertex possesses its own coherent data, such that it can be individually asymptotically approximated. We do this throu…
We undertake first steps in making a class of discrete models of quantum gravity, spin foams, accessible to a large scale analysis by numerical and computational methods. In particular, we apply Migdal-Kadanoff and Tensor Network Renormalization schemes to spin net and spin foam models based on finite Abelian groups and introduce `cutoff models' to probe the fate of gauge symmetries under various such approximated renormalization group flows. For the Tensor Network Renormalization analysis, a new Gauss constraint preserving algorithm is introduced to improve numerical stability and aid physica…
We propose a new holonomy formulation for spin foams, which naturally extends the theory space of lattice gauge theories. This allows current spin foam models to be defined on arbitrary two-complexes as well as to generalize current spin foam models to arbitrary, in particular finite groups. The similarity with standard lattice gauge theories allows to apply standard coarse graining methods, which for finite groups can now be easily considered numerically. We will summarize other holonomy and spin network formulations of spin foams and group field theories and explain how the different represe…
The Lorentzian EPRL spin foam amplitude for loop quantum gravity is a multi-dimensional non-compact integral of highly oscillating functions. Using a method based on the decomposition of Clebsch-Gordan coefficients for the unitary infinite-dimensional representations of SL(2,C) in terms of those of SU(2), we are able to provide for the first time numerical evaluations of the vertex amplitude. The values obtained support the asymptotic formula obtained by Barrett and collaborators with a saddle point approximation, showing, in particular, a power-law decay and oscillations related to the Regge …
We define the flatness and quasi-flatness problems in cosmological models. We seek solutions to both problems in homogeneous and isotropic Brans-Dicke cosmologies with varying speed of light. We formulate this theory and find perturbative, non-perturbative, and asymptotic solutions using both numerical and analytical methods. For a particular range of variations of the speed of light the flatness problem can be solved. Under other conditions there exists a late-time attractor with a constant value of Ωthat is smaller than, but of order, unity. Thus these theories may solve the quasi-flatness p…
The amplitude for a spin foam in the Barrett-Crane model of Riemannian quantum gravity is given as a product over its vertices, edges and faces, with one factor of the Riemannian 10j symbols appearing for each vertex, and simpler factors for the edges and faces. We prove that these amplitudes are always nonnegative for closed spin foams. As a corollary, all open spin foams going between a fixed pair of spin networks have real amplitudes of the same sign. This means one can use the Metropolis algorithm to compute expectation values of observables in the Riemannian Barrett-Crane model, as in sta…
We study here what it means for the Universe to be nearly flat, as opposed to exactly flat. We give three definitions of nearly flat, based on density, geometry and dynamics; all three definitions are equivalent and depend on a single constant flatness parameter epsilon that quantifies the notion of nearly flat. Observations can only place an upper limit on epsilon, and always allow the possibility that the Universe is infinite with k=-1 or finite with k=1. We use current observational data to obtain a numerical upper limit on the flatness parameter and discuss its implications, in particular …
Current theories of particle physics, including the standard model, are dominated by the paradigm that nature is basically translation invariant. Deviations from translation invariance are described by the action of forces. General relativity is based on a different paradigm: There is no translation invariance in general. Interaction is a consequence of the geometry of spacetime, formed by the presence of matter, rather than of forces. In recent years the formation of spacetime on a quantum mechanical level, has been intensively studied within the framework of spin foams, following an old idea…
The Barrett-Crane spin foam model for quantum gravity provides an excellent setting for testing analytical and numerical tools used to probe spinfoam models. Here, we complete the report on the numerical analysis of the single 4-simplex area correlations begun in Phys. Lett. B670 (2009) 403-406, discussing the next-to-leading order corrections ("one-loop" corrections) with particular attention to their measure dependence, and the difference between the Gaussian and Bessel ansatze for the boundary state.
Space-time wormholes were introduced in Wheeler's idea of space-time foam. Traversible wormholes as defined by Morris & Thorne became popular as potential short cuts across the universe and even time machines. More recently, the author proposed a general theory of wormhole dynamics, unified with black-hole dynamics. This article gives a brief review of the above ideas and summarizes progress on wormhole dynamics in the last year. Firstly, a numerical study of dynamical perturbations of the first Morris-Thorne wormhole showed it to be unstable, either collapsing to a black hole or exploding to …
We study the renormalization group flow of the Euclidean Engle-Pereira-Rovelli-Livine and Freidel-Krasnov (EPRL-FK) spin foam model in the large-$j$-limit. The vertex amplitude is deformed to include a cosmological constant term. The state sum is reduced to describe a foliated spacetime whose spatial slices are flat, isotropic and homogeneous. The model admits a non-vanishing extrinsic curvature whereas the scale factor can expand or contract at successive time steps. The reduction of degrees of freedom allows a numerical evaluation of certain geometric observables on coarser and finer discret…
Simplicity constraints play a crucial role in the construction of spin foam models, yet their effective behaviour on larger scales is scarcely explored. In this article we introduce intertwiner and spin net models for the quantum group $\text{SU}(2)_k \times \text{SU}(2)_k$, which implement the simplicity constraints analogous to 4D Euclidean spin foam models, namely the Barrett-Crane (BC) and the Engle-Pereira-Rovelli-Livine/Freidel-Krasnov (EPRL/FK) model. These models are numerically coarse grained via tensor network renormalization, allowing us to trace the flow of simplicity constraints t…
We study the SL(2,C) Clebsch-Gordan coefficients appearing in the lorentzian EPRL spin foam amplitudes for loop quantum gravity. We show how the amplitudes decompose into SU(2) nj-symbols at the vertices and integrals over boosts at the edges. The integrals define edge amplitudes that can be evaluated analytically using and adapting results in the literature, leading to a pure state sum model formulation. This procedure introduces virtual representations which, in a manner reminiscent to virtual momenta in Feynman amplitudes, are off-shell of the simplicity constraints present in the theory, b…
