171 citations · 1.1k across the 40 of their papers we have counts for
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A blackbody is not a blackbox
Matteo Smerlak
We discuss carefully the blackbody approximation, stressing what it is (a limit case of radiative transfer), and what it is not (the assumption that the body is perfectly absorbing…
In quantum gravity, summing is refining
Carlo Rovelli, Matteo Smerlak
In perturbative QED, the approximation is improved by summing more Feynman graphs; in non-perturbative QCD, by refining the lattice. Here we observe that in quantum gravity the two…
Bubble divergences from twisted cohomology
Valentin Bonzom, Matteo Smerlak
We consider a class of lattice topological field theories, among which are the weak-coupling limit of 2d Yang-Mills theory and 3d Riemannian quantum gravity, whose dynamical variab…
Thermal time and the Tolman-Ehrenfest effect: temperature as the "speed of time"
Carlo Rovelli, Matteo Smerlak
The notion of thermal time has been introduced as a possible basis for a fully general-relativistic thermodynamics. Here we study this notion in the restricted context of stationar…
Bubble divergences from cellular cohomology
Valentin Bonzom, Matteo Smerlak
We consider a class of lattice topological field theories, among which are the weak-coupling limit of 2d Yang-Mills theory, the Ponzano-Regge model of 3d quantum gravity and discre…