Generalized Gibbs Ensembles in Discrete Quantum Gravity

Abstract

Maximum entropy principle and Souriau’s symplectic generalization of Gibbs states have provided crucial insights leading to extensions of standard equilibrium statistical mechanics and thermodynamics. In this brief contribution, we show how such extensions are instrumental in the setting of discrete quantum gravity, towards providing a covariant statistical framework for the emergence of continuum spacetime. We discuss the significant role played by information-theoretic characterizations of equilibrium. We present the Gibbs state description of the geometry of a tetrahedron and its quantization, thereby providing a statistical description of the characterizing quanta of space in quantum gravity. We use field coherent states for a generalized Gibbs state to write an effective statistical field theory that perturbatively generates 2-complexes, which are discrete spacetime histories in several quantum gravity approaches.