Gravity as an SU(1, 1) gauge theory in four dimensions

Abstract

We start with the Hamiltonian formulation of the first order action of pure gravity with a full internal gauge symmetry. We make a partial gauge-fixing which reduces to its sub-algebra . This case corresponds to a splitting of the space-time where inherits an arbitrary Lorentzian metric of signature (−, +, +). Then, we find a parametrization of the phase space in terms of an commutative connection and its associated conjugate electric field. Following the techniques of loop quantum gravity, we start the quantization of the theory and we consider the kinematical Hilbert space on a given fixed graph whose edges are colored with unitary representations of . We compute the spectrum of area operators acting on the kinematical Hilbert space: we show that space-like areas have discrete spectra, in agreement with usual loop quantum gravity, whereas time-like areas have continuous spectra. We conclude on the possibility to make use of this formulation of gravity to construct a holographic description of black holes in the framework of loop quantum gravity.