Natural discrete differential calculus in physics

Abstract

We sharpen a recent observation by Tim Maudlin: differential calculus is a natural language for physics only if additional structure, like the definition of a Hodge dual or a metric, is given; but the discrete version of this calculus provides this additional structure for free.

4 pages, 1 figure. Version 2: minor revision and references added

References in corpus (3)

• The Spin Foam Approach to Quantum Gravity
• Laplacians on discrete and quantum geometries
• Random Lattice Gauge Theories and Differential Forms

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Analysis of the inference of ratings and rankings in complex networks using discrete exterior calculus on higher--order networks