Topological Aspects of Quantum Gravity

Abstract

This thesis discusses the topological aspects of quantum gravity, focusing on the connection between 2D quantum gravity and 2D topological gravity. The mathematical background for the discussion is presented in the first two chapters. The possible gauge formulations of 2D topological gravity as a BF or a Super BF theory are presented and compared against 2D quantum gravity in the dynamical triangulation scheme. A new identification between topological gravity in the Super BF formulation and the reduced hermitian matrix model at genus zero is explained in depth.

257 pages, 30 figures. Latex2e. Ph.D. thesis

References in corpus (1)

• Random Geometries in Quantum Gravity

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Liouville Field Theory -- A decade after the revolution
• A paradigm of open/closed duality: Liouville D-branes and the Kontsevich model
• On a worldsheet dual of the Gaussian matrix model
• Infinitesimal Gribov copies in gauge-fixed topological Yang-Mills theories
• Correspondence between the twisted $N=2$ super-Yang-Mills and conformal Baulieu-Singer theories
• Faddeev-Jackiw and Canonical Analysis of the Jackiw-Teitelboim model written as a BF theory