SIMPLICIAL EUCLIDEAN AND LORENTZIAN QUANTUM GRAVITY

Abstract

One can try to define the theory of quantum gravity as the sum over geometries. In two dimensions the sum over {\it Euclidean} geometries can be performed constructively by the method of {\it dynamical triangulations}. One can define a {\it proper-time} propagator. This propagator can be used to calculate generalized Hartle-Hawking amplitudes and it can be used to understand the the fractal structure of {\it quantum geometry}. In higher dimensions the philosophy of defining the quantum theory, starting from a sum over Euclidean geometries, regularized by a reparametrization invariant cut off which is taken to zero, seems not to lead to an interesting continuum theory. The reason for this is the dominance of singular Euclidean geometries. Lorentzian geometries with a global causal structure are less singular. Using the framework of dynamical triangulations it is possible to give a constructive definition of the sum over such geometries, In two dimensions the theory can be solved analytically. It differs from two-dimensional Euclidean quantum gravity, and the relation between the two theories can be understood. In three dimensions the theory avoids the pathologies of three-dimensional Euclidean quantum gravity. General properties of the four-dimensional discretized theory have been established, but a detailed study of the continuum limit in the spirit of the renormalization group and {\it asymptotic safety} is till awaiting.