q-deformed spin foams for Riemannian quantum gravity -- LOOPS’07 Morelia, 26 Jun 2007

Slides and audio available from: #khavkine Speaker: Igor Khavkine Title: q-deformed spin foams for Riemannian quantum gravity Abstract: 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. Joint work with Dan Christensen.