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Here's a quick overview of the physics behind CDT:

  • Spacetime is constructed using a lattices of simplices (Regge calculus)
  • Simplices are n-dimensional triangles
  • Curvature of a D-dimensional Delaunay lattice is concentrated on the co-dimension 2 simplices, or “bones"
  • The Ricci scalar can be expressed as the deficit angle between the co-dimension 1 faces around the bones, times the Areas of the faces
  • The Regge calculus equivalent of the Hilbert action is just the sum over all of the bones,

regge

  • The Einstein-Hilbert action is calculated as a discrete path integral which converges with a cosmological constant,

path

  • The path integral is summed over all inequivalent triangulations
  • There is a well-defined Wick-rotation to evaluate the path integral
  • Specify initial manifold, final manifold, find all ways to fill in space
  • Pachner moves + Metropolis algorithm pick out inequivalent triangulations
  • Transition amplitudes calculable
  • Random walk diffuser calculates spectral dimension: d at large scales, 2 at small scales
  • Fixing the lengths of the edges to get the simplex area easily and increasing number of simplices is dynamical triangulation
  • Enforcing causal structure leads to causal dynamical triangulations
  • Pick \alpha as edge length for timelike edges and pick “ergodic” Pachner moves respecting foliation
  • What are observables? Hard to extract information

Here's a recent talk I have gave about the work:

http://slides.com/acgetchell/causal-dynamical-triangulations-3

The full details may be found here:

http://arxiv.org/pdf/hep-th/0105267v1.pdf

A reading list of CDT, including foundations and latest results, may be found in this Zotero public group:

https://www.zotero.org/groups/causal-dynamical-triangulations

Finally, here's a nicely accessible blog post, written by Jonah Miller, one of my collaborators:

http://www.thephysicsmill.com/2013/10/13/causal-dynamical-triangulations/