An Inner Product for 4D Quantum Gravity and the Chern-Simons-Kodama State

Abstract

We demonstrate that reality conditions for the Ashtekar connection imply a non-trivial measure for the inner product of gravitational states in the polarization where the Ashtekar connection is diagonal, and we express the measure as the determinant of a certain first-order differential operator. This result opens the possibility to perform a non-perturbative analysis of the quantum gravity scalar product. In this polarization, the Chern-Simons-Kodama state, which solves the constraints of quantum gravity for a certain factor ordering, and which has de Sitter space as a semiclassical limit, is perturbatively non-normalizable with respect to the naive ve inner product. Our work reopens the question of whether this state might be normalizable when the correct non-perturbative inner product and choice of integration contour are taken into account. As a first step, we perform a semi-classical treatment of the measure by evaluating it on the round three-sphere, viewed as a closed spatial slice of de Sitter. The result is a simple, albeit divergent, infinite product that might serve as a regulator for a more complete treatment of the problem. Additionally, our results suggest deep connections between the problem of computing the norm of the CSK state in quantum gravity and computing the Chern-Simons partition function for a complex group.

arXiv commentJournal version

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Quantum Null Geometry and Gravity
• Area-metric gravity revisited
• Quantum-Ordering Ambiguities in Weak Chern-Simons 4D Gravity and Metastability of the Condensate-Induced Inflation
• Physical interpretation of non-normalizable harmonic oscillator states and relaxation to pilot-wave equilibrium
• A Realist Interpretation of Unitarity in Quantum Gravity