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# Implementing causality in the spin foam quantum geometry

## I Introduction

Spin foam models Baez danrev  have emerged recently as a new promising approach to the construction of a quantum theory of gravity, and much work has been devoted to the development of such models. However, much remains to be understood: in particular, the way these models actually encode the (quantum) geometry of spacetime is only partially under control, and also the role of causality (that we argue is indeed fundamental) in the existing models has been investigated only to a limited extent. In this paper we tackle both these issues, concentrating on the Lorentzian Barrett-Crane model for 4-dimensional quantum gravity bc1 bc2 , after a preliminary discussion of the 3-dimensional Ponzano-Regge model as an illustrative example, and we study its quantum geometry, its symmetries and the classical description of spacetime geometry it corresponds to; then we discuss its causal properties, and show how it can consistently be modified to implement causality requirements in full and to define causal transition amplitudes between quantum states of geometry. In this way it can be shown to fit within the general scheme of causal spin foam models proposed by many authors, being its first (highly) non-trivial example.

### I.1 Long-term plan and motivation

Let us first give a few motivations both for spin foam models in general and for our work in particular, and also outline a long-term plan in which our results may be seen as a step forward.

First of all, there are several reasons to believe that an approach which mantains full covariance in treating the gravitational field is to be preferred over any other which breaks this covariance SorkFork , e.g. a canonical approach based on a 3+1 splitting of the spacetime coordinates, or restricted to particular topologies such as the customary $`\mathrm{\Sigma }\times 𝐑`$. Even looking at the problem from the canonical side, the problems encountered in implementing the Hamiltonian constraint in loop quantum gravity carlorev thi , i.e. in understanding the dynamics of gravitational states, and the possibility of implementing it in a covariant manner by a projector operator encourage the search for a “covariant” version of loop gravity, which is a way to look at spin foam models mike&carlo carloproj . These can be seen as a peculiar implementation of the path integral approach to quantum gravity, where a partition function is defined as a sum over all the 4-geometries interpolating between given boundary 3-geometries, with a weight given by the exponential of ($`i`$ times) the Einstein-Hilbert action for general relativity, and a suitable measure on the space of 4-metrics up to diffeomorphisms, with a possible additional sum over all the possible manifolds having the given boundary:

$$Z(h_1,h_2)=\underset{}{}_{h_1,h_2}𝒟ge^{iS_{gr}}.$$
(1)
Transition amplitudes between quantum states, as well as expectation values of operators representing physical observables, are computed by means of this partition function. Now the path integral approach faces several problems, so that it is not even clear how to make sense of the formal expressions it involves. One may argue that these problems are the result of the use of continuum geometric structures such as the spacetime metric field itself, that should instead only emerge as an approximation of more fundamental structures in some appropriate limit. In this sense, the peculiarity of spin foam models as path integrals for gravity is very attractive: they are constructed out of only combinatorial and algebraic data, and in a background-independent fashion, so that no reference to any metric field is needed in their definition. The algebraic data that are used come from the local symmetry group of gravity, i.e. the Lorentz group, and the hope is to be able to describe all the geometry of spacetime and its dynamics out of this non-geometric information only. However, it must be said that how this can be possible, in the first place, and done in practice, is not clear, and more work is certainly needed.

Now that several spin foam models have been proposed, and that there is a fairly good understanding of the general formalism, the question is thus whether or not the proposed models contain the information needed to reconstruct a metric in some limit and to recover, in the same limit/approximation, Einstein’s equations. What ingredients does a complete spin foam have to contain? We know that a classical metric is determined uniquely and almost completely (one may say to nine tenths) by the knowledge of the causal structure of spacetime, i.e. the set of causal relations between points in the manifold, thought of as the conformal structrure or the set of light cones at each point, with the remaining degree of freedom being given by a length scale, e.g. the conformal factor or the determinant of the metric tensor. Accordingly to this decomposition of the metric degrees of freedom, one may think of splitting the path integral for quantum gravity into a sum over causal structures by which we mean both the set of points and that of their causal relations, and a sum/integral over possible assignment of scale information, i.e. metric data which consistently define a length scale, something like:

$$Z=\underset{C}{}𝒟le^{iS}.$$
(2)
Giving preference to a finitary substitute for continuum quantities Sorkin , the causal structures summed over may be Lorentzian triangulations, or their topologically dual “Lorentzian 2-complexes”, or causal sets, i.e. finitary sets of points endowed with a partial order representing their causal relationsSork ; the length scale, on the other hand, may also be dealt with in several ways; in spin foam models, which naturally fit in this finitary approach, both the causal relations and the length scale have to be encoded in the algebraic data labelling the 2-complexes. Of course, the amplitude for each configuration should reflect the causal structure as well.

So we may say that, if we have a spin foam model that defines a consistent causal structure and length scale, then we can be pretty sure that it is possible to reconstruct in full a metric field living in the continuum manifold that one builds up from the spin foam in some approximation, because all its degrees of freedom can be uniquely determined.

As for the dynamics of these degrees of freedom, it can be argued that, if they satisfy, when treated in a statistical mechanics manner, the thermodynamics governing black holes, in particular the relation between entropy and area, then the reconstructed continuum metric will obey Eistein’s equation to first approximation Jacobson . It was indeed shown Jacobson  that the Einstein equations follow from these thermodynamics-geometry relations in a continuum setting. Studying this statistical mechanics of spin foam degrees of freedom, and obtaining this relations in a spin foam setting would then be the next step towards a spin foam quantization of gravity.

In this paper we do not deal with the problem of the dynamics, but limit ourself to the analysis of the geometric and causal ingredients of the Barrett-Crane model, leaving the study of the statistical mechanics of its degrees of freedom to future work. The discussion above clarifies why we think this is a crucial step on the path towards a complete quantum gravity theory. Moreover, such an analysis may help to clarify the relationship between the spin foam approach and other closely related ones, in particular dynamical triangulations and causal sets.

### I.2 Flashback on the path integral realization of the projection operator and of the Feynman propagator

Given that spin foam models realise a path integral for quantum gravity, it is still under question what exactly this algebraic path integral provides, what kind of transition amplitude, or what kind of Green function (in analogy with the field theoretic knowledge) it gives. We discuss first the path integral or sum-over-histories realization of Green functions for the relativistic particle, and then how the same idea can be implemented at least at a formal level in the case of quantum gravity in the traditional metric (second order) formalism (most of this section is from Teitelboim , but see also Halli  for an account of the sum-oev-histories realization of several Green’s functions for the relativistic particle). Finally, we outline the analogy with the Barrett-Crane spin foam model, that furnishes the conceptual starting point for our analysis.

#### I.2.1 Relativistic particle or general relativity on 0 (spatial) dimensions

Consider a relativistic particle in flat space, with action:

$$S(x)=_{\lambda _1}^{\lambda _2}(m)\sqrt{\frac{dx^\mu }{d\lambda }\frac{dx_\mu }{d\lambda }}𝑑\lambda ,$$
(3)
invariant under reparametrization $`\lambda f(\lambda )`$ (this is the sense in which one may think of this elementary system as similar to general relativity in 0 spatial dimension) that reduce to the identity on the boundary, and its path integral quantization defined by:

$$Z(x_1,x_2)=_{x_1=x(\lambda _1),x_2=x(\lambda _2)}(\underset{\lambda [\lambda _1,\lambda _2]}{}d^4x)e^{iS(x)}.$$
(4)
In order to understand how different Green’s functions come out of this same expression, as well as to avoid a few technical problems in dealing with it (see Teitelboim ), it is convenient to pass to the Hamiltonian formalism. The action becomes:

$$S(x)=_{\lambda _1}^{\lambda _2}(p_\mu \dot{x}^\mu N)𝑑\lambda $$
(5)
where $`=p_\mu p^\mu +m^2=0`$ is the Hamiltonian constraint that gives the dynamics of the system (it represents the equation of motion obtained by extremizing the action above with respect to the variables $`x`$, $`p`$, and $`N`$), and $`p_\mu `$ is the momentum conjugate to $`x^\mu `$.

After a gauge fixing such as, for example, $`\dot{N}=0`$, one may proceed to quantization integrating the exponential of the action with respect to the canonical variables, with a suitable choice of measure. The integral over the “lapse” $`N`$ requires a bit of discussion. First of all we use as integration variable $`T=N(\lambda _2\lambda _1)`$ (which may be interpreted as the proper time elapsed between the initial and final state). Then note that the monotonicity of $`\lambda `$, together with the continuity of $`N`$ as a function of $`\lambda `$ imply that $`N`$ is always positive or always negative, so that the integration over it may be divided into two disjoint classes $`N>0`$ and $`N<0`$. Now one can show that the integral over both classes yields the Hadamard Green function:

$`G_H(x_1,x_2)=x_2x_1`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}}𝑑T{\displaystyle (\underset{\lambda }{}d^4xd^4p)e^{i{\scriptscriptstyle 𝑑\lambda (pxT)}}}`$ (6)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle (\underset{\lambda }{}d^4xd^4p)\delta (p^2+m^2)e^{i{\scriptscriptstyle 𝑑\lambda (px)}}}`$
which is related to the Wightman functions $`G^\pm `$, in turn obtained from the previous expression by inserting a $`\theta (p^0)`$ in the integrand and a $`\pm `$ in the exponent, by:

$$G_H(x_1,x_2)=G^+(x_1,x_2)+G^{}(x_1,x_2)=G^+(x_1,x_2)+G^+(x_2,x_1).$$
(7)
This function is a solution of the Klein-Gordon equation in both its arguments, and does not register any order between them, in fact $`G_H(x,y)=G_H(y,x)`$. Putting it differently, it is an a-causal transition amplitude between physical states, or a physical inner product between them, and the path integral above can be seen as a definition of the generalized projector operator that project kinematical states onto solutions of the Hamiltonian constraint, i.e. as an implementation of the group averaging procedure for imposing it:

$$G_H(x_1,x_2)=x_2x_1_{phys}=_{kin}x_2𝒫_{=0}x_1_{kin}.$$
(8)
On the other hand, one may choose to integrate over only one of the two classes corresponding to each given sign of $`N`$, say $`N>0`$. This corresponds to an integration over all and only the histories for which the state $`x_2`$ lies in the future of the state $`x_1`$, with respect to the proper time $`T`$, and yields the Feynman propagator or causal amplitude:

$$G_F(x_1,x_2)=x_2x_1_C=_0^+\mathrm{}𝑑T(\underset{\lambda }{}d^4xd^4p)e^{i{\scriptscriptstyle 𝑑\lambda (pxT)}},$$
(9)
which is related to the Wightman functions by:

$`G_F(x_1,x_2)=x_2x_1_C`$ $`=`$ $`\theta (x_1^0x_2^0)G^+(x_1,x_2)+\theta (x_2^0x_1^0)G^{}(x_1,x_2)`$ (10)
$`=`$ $`\theta (x_1^0x_2^0)G^+(x_1,x_2)+\theta (x_2^0x_1^0)G^+(x_2,x_1).`$
Note that all trajectories of interest, for both orientations of $`x_0`$ with respect to $`\lambda `$, are included in the above integral, if we consider both positive and negative energies, so no physical limitation is implied by the choice made above. The resulting function is not a solution of the Klein-Gordon equation, it is not a realization of a projection onto solutions of the Hamiltonian constraint, but it is the physical transition amplitude between states which takes into account causality requirements (it corresponds, in field theory, to the time-ordered 2-point function).

#### I.2.2 Quantum gravity in metric formalism (formal)

Let us now turn to proper quantum gravity, that we deal with in a rather formal way in the usual metric formalism. The action, in hamiltonian terms, is:

$$S=_{}(\pi ^{ij}\dot{g}_{ij}N^i_iN)d^4x,$$
(11)
where the variables are $`g_{ij}`$, the 3-metric induced on a spacelike slice of the manifold $``$, $`\pi ^{ij}`$, its conjugate momentum, the shift $`N^i`$, a Lagrange multiplier that enforces the (space) diffeomorphism constraint $`^i=0`$, and the lapse $`N`$ that enforces the hamiltonian constraint $`=0`$, again encoding the dynamics of the theory and the symmetry under time diffeomorphisms, which are required to reduce to the identity on the boundary, while the space diffeomorphisms are unrestricted.

We are interested in the transition amplitude between 3-geometries. After a proper gauge fixing (such as $`N^i=0`$ and $`\dot{N}=0`$, “proper time gauge”), and the addition of suitable ghost terms (see Teitelboim ), one may write a formal path integral, integrating over the variables with some given measure the exponential of ($`i`$ times) the action written above. The integration over $`N^i`$ is now absent because of the gauge condition chosen, but it could be anyway carried out without problems, with $`N^i`$ having integration range $`(\mathrm{},+\mathrm{})`$, projecting the states $`g_1`$, $`g_2`$ onto diffeomorphism invariant states, while, again, as in the particle case, the integral over $`N`$ can be split into two disjoint classes according to its sign. Again, different choices of the integration range yield different types of transition amplitudes.

The integration over both classes implements the projection onto physical states, solutions of the Hamiltonian constraint, so that we may formally write:

$`g_2g_1_{phys}`$ $`=`$ $`{}_{kin}{}^{}g_2P_{=0}g_1_{kin}^{}=_{kin}g_2{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}}𝒟Ne^{iN}g_1_{kin}`$ (12)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}}𝒟N{\displaystyle _{g_1,g_2}}({\displaystyle \underset{x}{}}𝒟g_{ij}(x)𝒟\pi ^{ij}(x))e^{iS},`$
where we have omitted the ghost terms.

As in the particle case, this amplitude satisfy all the constraints, i.e. $`^\mu g_2g_1=0`$, and does not register any ordering of the two arguments. In this sense it can be thus identified with the analogue of the Hadamard function for the gravitational field. It gives the physical inner product between quantum gravity states.

If we are interested in a physical, causal, transition amplitude between these states, on the other hand, then we must take into account the causality requirement that the second 3-geometry lies in the future of the first, i.e. that the proper time elapsed between the two is positive. This translates into the restriction of the integration range of $`N`$ to positive values only, or to only half of the possible locations of the final hypersurface with respect to the first.

Then we define a causal tansition amplitude as:

$`g_2g_1_C`$ $`=`$ $`{}_{kin}{}^{}g_2g_1_{kin}^{}=_{kin}g_2{\displaystyle _0^+\mathrm{}}𝒟Ne^{iN}g_1_{kin}`$ (13)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _0^+\mathrm{}}𝒟N{\displaystyle _{g_1,g_2}}({\displaystyle \underset{x}{}}𝒟g_{ij}(x)𝒟\pi ^{ij}(x))e^{iS},`$
where we have formally defined the path integral with the given boundary states as the action of an evolution operator $``$ on kinematical states.

The causal amplitude is not a solution of the hamiltonian constraint, as a result of the restriction of the average over only half of the possible deformations of the initial hypersurface, generated by it; on the other hand, in this way causality is incorporated directly at the level of the sum-over-histories formulation of the quantum gravity transition amplitude.

#### I.2.3 Analogy with the BC model

Coming finally to spin foam models, and to the Barrett-Crane model in particular, it should be clear that, after having recognised it as a realization on rigorous grounds of the a path integral for quantum gravity, one should still answer several key questions: what kind of amplitude does it define? is it an implementation of the projector operator or a realization of the Feynman propagator? if it defines a projector, where is encoded the discrete $`𝐙`$ symmetry responsible for the counting of both classes of “lapses” $`N`$ in the path integral? is it possible to break such a symmetry, restrict the integration and implement causality in this way? also, what formulation of spacetime geometry does it provide? does it have an intepretation in terms of classical actions like in 2? what kind of geometric information is encoded in its amplitudes and how? does it allow the identification of an underlying finitary causal structure to be summed over as in 2?

Tentative answers to all these questions will be provided below.

A framework for the realisation of the projector resulting from spin foam models such as the Barrett-Crane model has been proposed by Perez and Rovelli in projector . It is based on the group field theory underlying the given spin foam model and the application of the GNS construction to the correlations induced by the path integral. More precisely, one considers the $`C^{}`$ algebra of (boundary) spin networks

$$𝒜=\left\{a=\underset{s}{}c_ss,c_s𝐂\right\}$$
(14)
provided with a natural product defined by the union of two spin networks $`s_1.s_2=s_1s_2`$, the star operator defined as $`s^{}=s`$ and the norm $`|a|=sup_s|c_s|`$. Then we consider the state (positive linear functional) over $`𝒜`$ obtained by a sum of spin foams $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ with fixed boundary:

$$W(s)=\underset{\mathrm{\Delta },\mathrm{\Delta }=s}{}A(\mathrm{\Delta }),$$
(15)
which is defined through the path integral of the group field theory as

$$W(s)=[D\varphi ]\varphi _se^{S[\varphi ]}.$$
(16)
$`\varphi _s`$ is the function of the field $`\varphi `$ corresponding to the spin network $`s`$. For example, in the Barret-Crane model, the spin networks are 4-valent, the field $`\varphi `$ corresponds to the quantized tetrahedron and thus creates a 4-valent node: we can glue 4-vertices together to create the spin network $`s`$, which corresponds to a product of $`\varphi `$, and $`S[\varphi ]`$ is the field theory action generating the spin foam model through its perturbative expansion in Feynman diagrams gft1 ; gft2 . $`W`$ is linear by construction and trivially real and positive (the problematic issue is its convergence). We then simply follow the GNS construction. Unphysical modes are given by the Gelfand ideal

$$=\left\{a𝒜\right|W(a^{}a)=0\}.$$
(17)
Finally the resulting Hilbert space of physical quantum geometry states is

$$=\overline{𝒜/},$$
(18)
with scalar product given by

$$a|b=W(a^{}b).$$
(19)
This builds physical states, solutions of the Hamiltonian constraint. We have started from the kinematical scalar product $`{}_{kin}{}^{}.|._{kin}^{}`$, for which spin networks are orthonormal, to construct the physical scalar product $`.|.={}_{kin}{}^{}.|P_{=0}|._{kin}^{}=W(.^{}.)`$. During the process, we have lost time orientation. This corresponds to the fact that $`s^{}=s`$ and that consequently the transition amplitude from a state $`s_1`$ to a state $`s_2`$ is real and the same as the reverse phenomenon and as the process creating $`s_1s_2`$ out of nothing:

$$W(s_1s_2)=W(s_1s_2)=W(s_1s_2)=W(\mathrm{}s_1s_2)=W(s_1s_2\mathrm{}).$$
(20)
The question is then how to obtain causal transition amplitudes, which are time oriented. It seems that requiring $`s^{}s`$ would be enough. This can be achieved through considering a complex field. This possibility is being studied in detail in some work in progress. In the present paper, we focus on studying the classical and quantum geometry underlying the Barrett-Crane model and understanding how it is possible to induce a causal structure in it, defining causal transition amplitudes. Then, we can conjecture that a complex group field theory generates this causal spin foam model just as (real) group field theory generates the present spin foam models.

## II Ponzano-Regge model in dual variables

Before studying the Barrett-Crane model, linked to general relativity in $`3+1`$ dimensions, it is interesting to have a look at the corresponding spin foam model in 3 dimensions. Indeed, in this section, we formulate the Ponzano-Regge model in a similar fashion as we are going to do with the Barrett-Crane, using normals to each triangle as basic variables. We explain how the partition function of the model defines a projector onto the physical states and we show how the model has a natural $`Z_2`$ symmetry erasing causality.

### II.1 Definition of the model

The Ponzano-Regge model is a simplicial geometry model i.e we view the (three dimensional) space-time as made from gluing tetrahedra together and we associate an amplitude to each configuration. More precisely, we label all edges with an $`SU(2)`$ spin representation $`V^j`$ and give weights to all edges, triangles (faces) and tetrahedra. The weight associated to edges $`e`$ is simply the dimension of the representation $`\mathrm{\Delta }_j=(2j+1)`$. $`j`$ is the length of the edge (up to a possible constant). $`\mathrm{\Delta }_j`$ then corresponds to the number of states $`|mV^j`$ of an edge of length $`j`$. The weight of a triangle $`t`$ is a function of the representations $`j_1,j_2,j_3`$ living on its edges. If there exists an intertwiner between these three representations (the Clebsch-Gordan coefficient is non zero), then this weight is 1, otherwise it is 0. This also corresponds to the number of possible triangles (to rotations) given the length of its 3 edges. Mathematically, it is given by the $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ diagram for the representations $`j_1,j_2,j_3`$. It is the product $`C_{m_1m_2m_3}^{j_1j_2j_3}C_{m_1m_2m_3}^{j_1j_2j_3}`$ of two Clebsch-Gordan coefficients. Finally, we associate to each tetrahedron $`tet`$ the $`\{6j\}`$ symbol made from the 6 representations living on its edges. By multiplying all these weights, we get an amplitude associated to a given configuration of the tetrahedra.

More precisely, the $`\{6j\}`$ symbol associated to a tetrahedron is the product of the Clebsch-Gordan coefficients associated to each of its four triangles:

$$\{6j\}=C_{m_1m_2m_3}^{j_1j_2j_3}C_{m_3m_4m_5}^{j_3j_4j_5}C_{m_5m_2m_6}^{j_5j_2j_6}C_{m_6m_4m_1}^{j_6j_4j_1}$$
(21)
The partition function for a manifold without boundary, equipped with a fixed triangulation $`T`$, is then:

$$Z=𝒩_T\left(\underset{e}{}\underset{j_e}{}\mathrm{\Delta }_{j_e}\right)\underset{t}{}\mathrm{\Theta }_t(j)\underset{tet}{}\{6j\}_{tet}$$
(22)
where $`𝒩_T`$ is a constant depending on the triangulation only.

We can recombine the 3-tensors $`C`$ associated to each couple of triangle and tetrahedron to keep them at the level of the triangle. This is achieved using the following relation (for each of the two pairs of coefficients living associated to each triangle, one coming from the theta symbol and the other from one of the two $`6j`$-symbols associated to the two tetrahedra sharing the triangle):

$$_{SU(2)}𝑑hD_{a_1b_1}^{j_1}(h)D_{a_2b_2}^{j_2}(h)D_{a_3b_3}^{j_3}(h)=C_{a_1a_2a_3}^{j_1j_2j_3}C_{b_1b_2b_3}^{j_1j_2j_3}$$
(23)
where $`D^j(h)`$ is the representation matrix of the group element $`h`$ in the representation $`j`$. This way, we introduce new variables $`h`$ associated to each triangle of the simplicial manifold. We call these $`SU(2)`$ group elements “normals to the triangle”.

Then, the way to construct the Ponzano-Regge amplitude for a closed manifold (without boundary), in this “dual” formulation, meaning using these $`SU(2)`$ variables, is as follows. We use the (combinatorial) 2-complex dual to the simplicial manifold under consideration, having a vertex for each tetrahedron, an edge for each triangle and a plaquette for each edge of the original triangulation. We then divide each plaquette into “wedges”, each being the part of the plaquette “inside” each 3-simplex (see for example Reseinberger  for detailed explanations and pictures).

We put group elements $`h`$ and $`g`$ around each wedge inside each plaquette, i.e. on the links that form the boundary of each wedge. The $`h`$ variables are associated to the interior links, there is one of them for each vertex connected to each interior link, and can be thought of as associated to the triangles of the simplicial manifold, as we explained above. The $`g`$ variables are instead non-dynamical, in the sense that they do not really contribute to any amplitude of the model and just disappear if the integration over them is performed (unless they are located on the boundary of the 2-complex), and are associated to the links that are shared between two different wedges (see Fig.1).

Then, the amplitude is the product over the wedges $`w`$ of the character $`\chi ^{j_w}`$ ($`j_w`$ labelling a chosen wedge, but the integration over the $`g`$ variables, if performed, forces the representations $`j`$ associated to the different wedges in the same plaquette to be all the same) evaluated on the oriented product of $`g`$ and $`h`$ around the wedge.

The partition function in this “dual” formulation (for a manifold without boundary) then is:

$$Z=𝒩_T\left(\underset{w}{}\underset{j_w}{}\mathrm{\Delta }_{j_w}\right)\left(\underset{e}{}_{SU(2)}𝑑h_e\right)\left(\underset{\stackrel{~}{e}}{}_{SU(2)}𝑑g_{\stackrel{~}{e}}\right)\underset{v}{}\underset{wv}{}\chi ^{j_w}(h_1g_1g_2h_2)$$
(24)
where there is an integral for each group element assigned to each internal link $`e`$, an integral for each group element assigned to the boundary $`\stackrel{~}{e}`$ of each wedge within each plaquette, and a sum over the representations $`j`$ assigned to each wedge, and the amplitudes are products of characters for each wedge $`w`$ inside each tetrahedron (dual to some vertex $`v`$). Basically we have been doing the “reverse” of the lattice gauge theory type of derivation of the Ponzano-Regge model (see OLoughlin ). The same kind of “dual” formulation for the Euclidean Barrett-Crane model was shown in hendryk .

If we integrate over the $`g`$ variables, then we just obtain the constraint that all the representations for the wedges in a given plaquette are the same, and the measure for it is given by only one factor $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ for each plaquette.

If we then sum over the representations $`j`$, we get the product over the plaquettes of the Dirac distribution $`\delta _{SU(2)}`$ evaluated over the oriented product of $`h`$ variables only around the boundary of a full plaquette.

Of course, if we integrate out both the variables $`g`$ and $`h`$, we obtain back the expression 22.

For a manifold with boundary, the boundary is defined by a set of (exterior) triangles creating a simplicial $`2d`$ manifold. This results in some plaquettes being truncated so that some groups elements $`g=g_{ext}`$ remain exposed on the boundary (they correspond to a discrete connection living on the boundary). The partition function is the same as above, but now we do not integrate over the $`g_{ext}`$ or do not sum over the $`j`$ associated with boundary wedges, depending on which boundary condition we choose to adopt OLoughlin boundary . This way, we can construct the amplitude $`a(g_{ext},h_{ext})`$ of the spin foam with boundary defined by the boundary connection $`g_{ext}`$ and the normals $`h_{ext}`$ to the triangles on the boundary.

### II.2 A projection operator

We construct boundary states, for a given fixed spin foam, as functionals of both a connection living on the boundary and the external “normals”. They are constructed on the boundary graph and are functions which therefore depend on $`SU(2)`$ group elements $`g_e`$ living on the edge on the oriented graph (boundary connection) and on $`SU(2)`$ group elements $`h_v`$ living at the vertices of the graph (triangle normals). They are required to satisfy the same gauge invariance as the spin foam amplitude $`a(g_{ext}=g_e,h_{ext}=h_v)`$:

$$k_vSU(2),\varphi (g_e,h_v)=\varphi (k_{s(e)}g_ek_{t(e)}^1,k_vh_v)$$
(25)
We can endow this space of functions with a measure by taking the Haar measure on $`SU(2)^E`$ where $`E`$ is the number of edges of the graph :

$$\mu (\varphi )=_{SU(2)^E}\underset{e}{}dg_e\varphi (g_e,h_v).$$
(26)
One can check that this integral does not depend on the choice of the normals $`h_v`$ when $`\varphi `$ is gauge invariant, so that we can choose $`v,h_v=Id`$ if we want. One can use this measure to define a Hilbert space of boundary states by considering the space of $`L^2`$ functions. The resulting scalar product reads

$$\varphi |\psi =_{SU(2)^E}\underset{e}{}dg_e\overline{\varphi }(g_e,h_v)\psi (g_e,h_v)$$
(27)
.

Then, one would like to derive the Hilbert space of physical states taking into account the spin foam amplitude. Following projector , one would like to use the GNS construction to “project” the space of boundary states down to the physical states. One considers the algebra $`𝒜`$ of gauge invariant functions and considers the linear functional :

$$w(\varphi )=\mu (a\varphi )=_{SU(2)^E}\underset{e}{}dg_ea(g_e,h_v)\varphi (g_e,h_v)$$
(28)
where $`a(g_e,h_v)`$ is the spin foam amplitude, summed over the representations, for a boundary $`g_e,h_v`$. This functional is positive and we can consider the corresponding Gelfand ideal :

$$=\{\varphi |w(\overline{\varphi }\varphi )=0\}.$$
(29)
Then $`w`$ defined a norm on $`𝒜/`$ and the final Hilbert space will be the completion (for the norm $`w`$) of $`𝒜/`$.

An easy example is the case of the single tetrahedron (the simplest triangulation of $`B^3`$). The boundary is given by the four triangles (with the topology of $`S^2`$): we have 4 normals $`h_A,\mathrm{},h_D`$ to its four faces and 12 groups elements $`g_1,\mathrm{},g_{12}`$ connecting these faces (see Fig.2).

The amplitude can be easily computed as explained previously and, choosing the gauge $`h_v=Id`$ to compute $`w`$, we get:

$$w(\varphi )=\varphi (g_e=Id,h_v=Id).$$
(30)
Thus only the flat connection $`g_e=Id`$ is physical, which was the expected result.

That the Ponzano-Regge model is a realization of the projector operator (which is how we have been using it here) is well-known and was shown, for example, in Ooguri  and in ansdorf . Let us recall the argument in Ooguri . Consider a 3-manifold $`M`$ and decompose it into three parts $`M_1`$, $`M_2`$ and $`N`$, with $`N`$ having the topology of a cylinder $`\mathrm{\Sigma }\times [0,1]`$ ($`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ compact), and the boundaries $`M_1`$ and $`M_2`$ being isomorphic to $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$. The Ponzano-Regge partition function may then be written as:

$$Z_M=𝒩_T\underset{j_e\mathrm{\Delta }_1,j_{\stackrel{~}{e}}\mathrm{\Delta }_2}{}Z_{M_1,\mathrm{\Delta }_1}(j_e)P_{\mathrm{\Delta }_1,\mathrm{\Delta }_2}(j_e,j_{\stackrel{~}{e}})Z_{M_2,\mathrm{\Delta }_2}(j_{\stackrel{~}{e}})$$
(31)
where we have chosen a triangulation in which no tetrahedron is shared by any two of the three parts in which we have partitioned the manifold, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_i`$ are triangulations of the boundaries of these parts. We have included also the sum over spins assigned to edges internal to $`M_1`$, $`M_2`$ and $`N`$ in the definition of the functions $`Z_{M_i,\mathrm{\Delta }_i}`$ and $`P_{\mathrm{\Delta }_1,\mathrm{\Delta }_2}`$.

Because of the topological invariance of the model, and of the consequent invariance under change of triangulation, the following relation holds:

$$_{\mathrm{\Delta }_2}\underset{j_{\stackrel{~}{e}}\mathrm{\Delta }_2}{}P_{\mathrm{\Delta }_1,\mathrm{\Delta }_2}(j_e,j_{\stackrel{~}{e}})P_{\mathrm{\Delta }_2,\mathrm{\Delta }_3}(j_{\stackrel{~}{e}},j_e^{})=P_{\mathrm{\Delta }_1,\mathrm{\Delta }_3}(j_e,j_e^{})$$
(32)
where $``$ is another constant depending only on the triangulation $`\mathrm{\Delta }_2`$.

Because of this property, the following operator acting on spin network states $`\varphi _\mathrm{\Delta }`$ living on the boundary triangulation is a projector:

$$𝒫[\varphi _\mathrm{\Delta }](j)=_\mathrm{\Delta }\underset{j^{}}{}P_{\mathrm{\Delta },\mathrm{\Delta }}(j,j^{})\varphi _\mathrm{\Delta }(j^{})$$
(33)
i.e. it satisfies: $`𝒫𝒫=𝒫`$, and we can re-write the partition function as:

$$Z_M=𝒩_T\underset{j_e\mathrm{\Delta }_1,j_{\stackrel{~}{e}}\mathrm{\Delta }_2}{}𝒫[Z_{M_1,\mathrm{\Delta }_1}](j_e)P_{\mathrm{\Delta }_1,\mathrm{\Delta }_2}(j_e,j_{\stackrel{~}{e}})𝒫[Z_{M_2,\mathrm{\Delta }_2}](j_{\stackrel{~}{e}}).$$
(34)
This allows us to define the physical quantum states of the theory as those satisfying:

$$\varphi _\mathrm{\Delta }=𝒫[\varphi _\mathrm{\Delta }]$$
(35)
being the anlogue of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation, and the inner product between them as:

$$\varphi _\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi _\mathrm{\Delta }^{}_{phys}=\underset{j,j^{}\mathrm{\Delta }}{}\varphi _\mathrm{\Delta }(j)P_{\mathrm{\Delta },\mathrm{\Delta }}(j,j^{})\varphi _\mathrm{\Delta }^{},$$
(36)
so that the functions $`Z_{M_1}`$ and $`Z_{M_2}`$ are solutions to the equation 35 and the partition function for $`M`$ basically gives their inner product.

In this argument a crucial role is played by the triangulation invariance of the model, so that it is not possible to repeat it for the case of 4-dimensional gravity (i.e. Barrett-Crane model), where a sum over triangulations or a refining procedure are necessary to avoid dependence on the given triangulation. However, it is possible to identify in the Ponzano-Regge model a distinguishing feature of the projector operator as realized in path integral terms, and this is the analogue of the $`Z_2`$ symmetry we have seen in the relativistic particle case and in the formal path integral quantization of gravity in the metric formalism. This is the symmetry that “kills causality” by integrating over both signs of the proper time, and is realized in the present case as a symmetry under change of orientation for the simplicial manifold (we will give more details on this link between orientation and causality when discussing the Barrett-Crane model), as is clear in the Lorentzian context, where future oriented (d-1)-simplices are changed into past oriented ones and viceversa. This symmetry is actually evident at the level of (d-2)-simplices, writing the model in terms of characters as we did. In fact, under a change of orientation of the edges in the manifold, the plaquettes (or wedges) of the dual complex also change their orientation and this is reflected by substituting the group elements assigned to the boundary links of each plaquette (wedge) with their inverses. Clearly, the partition function, and each amplitude in it, is not affected by this change due to the equality between the characters of group elements which are inverse of each other. Indeed, in the case of $`SU(2)`$, a group element is conjugate to its inverse (the Weyl group is $`Z_2`$) and they both have the same (real) character. It is the identification of an analogous symmetry in the 4-dimensional case that will show how the Barrett-Crane model realizes a projection onto physical states. Indeed, once again, $`Spin(4)`$ and $`SL(2,𝐂)`$ group elements are conjugate to their inverse (the Weyl group is still $`Z_2`$) and the model is invariant under change of orientation.

In principle, one could try to distinguish the two mirror images and find a way to restrict the model to only one of them; however, there is not much motivation to do so in the Euclidean context, due to the lack of a time direction and all related causality issues. Then, it would make more sense to look at the same issue in a Lorentzian $`2+1`$ spin foam model. Indeed, such a model would be based on $`SU(1,1)`$ and its unitary representations. It has been considered in davids ; 2+1 . A very interesting feature of these constructions is that there exists a topological model based only on the discrete (positive) series of unitary representations of $`SU(1,1)`$. Interestingly, for these representations, it turns out that the $`Z_2`$ symmetry is killed (the Weyl group is trivial) and that the character are simple exponentials: $`SU(1,1)`$ naturally distinguishes two time arrows, the past and the future. This model is therefore is a nice candidate for Lorentzian $`2+1`$ general relativity and represents a motivation to deal with the $`3+1`$ case in a similar fashion.

The whole previous construction can be generalised to any dimension. It corresponds to a state sum model for free $`BF`$ theory. The case which interests us is the 4 dimensional case. There we are studying a 2-complex locally dual to a 4-dimensional simplicial manifold i.e a (combinatorial) gluing of 4-simplices. Each 4-simplex is made of 10 triangles (faces) grouped in 5 tetrahedra. We associate to each triangle a $`Spin(4)`$ representation in the Euclidean theory (or an $`SL(2,𝐂)`$ representation in the Lorentzian case). Each tetrahedron is defined as a 4-valent intertwiner between the 4 representations of its triangles. $`Spin(4)`$ can be decomposed as $`SU(2)SU(2)`$ and its irreducible representations are labelled by two half-integers $`J=(j,k)`$ for the two corresponding $`SU(2)`$ representations. A basis for such a representation is given by the usual basis of $`SU(2)`$ representations and is labelled by a couple of half-integers $`M=(m,n)`$. There is not a unique 4-valent intertwiner given four representations, but they form a Hilbert space. A nice basis is given by decomposing the 4-intertwiner into two 3-intertwiners. As 3-valent intertwiners are unique (they are the Clebsch-Gordan coefficients up to normalization), the basis is labelled by an intermediate $`Spin(4)`$ representation. We note the (orthonormalised) intertwiners $`C_{M_1M_2M_3M_4}^{J_1J_2J_3J_4J}`$, where $`J`$ is the intermediate representation. Finally, the 4-simplex is made up of 10 triangles labelled by one representation each and 5 tetrahedra also labelled by one representation each. We associate to each 4-simplex an invariant amplitude made up from these 15 representations. It is the $`\{15j\}`$ symbol for $`Spin(4)`$, which is obtained naturally by contracting the 10 face representations using the 5 intertwiners. We can give an alternative construction of the amplitudes. As in the three dimensional case, we associate $`Spin(4)`$ (or $`SL(2,𝐂)`$) group elements to each tetrahedron. Then the relation

$$_{Spin(4)}𝑑g\underset{i=1}{\overset{4}{}}D_{A_iB_i}^{J_i}(g)=C_{A_1A_2A_3A_4}^{J_1J_2J_3J_4J}C_{B_1B_2B_3B_4}^{J_1J_2J_3J_4J}$$
(37)
allows us to reconstruct the whole amplitude of a 2-complex. It gives the gluing condition of two 4-simplices: the internal representation of the common tetrahedron is the same for both 4-simplices, as is obvious from the previous formula. Indeed, the $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ diagram of the three-dimensional case is replaced by an eye diagram, made of four edges labelled with the 4 face representations of the tetrahedron and with two 4-valent intertwiner (internal) representations $`J`$ and $`K`$ corresponding to the tetrahedron seen in each 4-simplex. This is the number of quantum states of tetrahedron. Due to the orthonormality of the $`C`$ intertwiners, the eye diagram value is 1 if $`J=K`$ and 0 else. Also, we have the same projector interpretation as in the three-dimensional case.

However, we need to stress at this point that the 4-simplex constructed as such from BF theory is not geometric, in the sense that there is no relationship between the $`B`$ field of the theory and any frame or tetrad field, and consequently any metric field. It is possible to impose such a relationship and also to relate classical geometric constraints on the structure of a 4-simplex to constraints on the representations bc1 . This gives the Barrett-Crane model which we discuss in the next section. In that case, the internal representation of a tetrahedron can be different in the two attached 4-simplices, and the eye diagram is not restricted anymore to 0 or 1: there is a richer space of quantum states of the tetrahedron bb .

## III The quantum geometry of the Barrett-Crane model

Let us now turn to our main object of interest, 4-dimensional gravity in Minkowskian signature, and to the corresponding spin foam model: the Lorentzian Barrett-Crane model. We first review briefly the classical basis for the quantum description of gravity given by this model, and the model itself; then we show how it describes the geometry of spacetime both at the quantum and classical level.

### III.1 The Lorentzian Barrett-Crane model….

The classical starting point for the spin foam quantization of gravity of the Barrett-Crane model is the formulation of gravitational theory as a constrained topological field theory. That a final theory of quantum gravity would share the general properties of a topological field theory was argued many times in the recent past Barrett ; Crane ; mike&carlo , and that the implementation of geometric constraints to classical $`BF`$ theory reduces this to first order general relativity was know since long ago CDJ ; what was missing was a route towards the quantum translation of these geometric constraints and a framework for their implementation in a consistent quantum gravity model; this is provided exactly by the Barrett-Crane model.

Consider the $`so(3,1)`$-Plebanski action:

$$S(\omega ,B,\varphi )=_{}\left[B^{IJ}F_{IJ}(\omega )+\frac{1}{2}\varphi _{IJKL}B^{IJ}B^{KL}\right]$$
(38)
which is a $`BF`$ theory (a topological field theory) action with variables a 2-form $`B_{\mu \nu }^{IJ}`$ with values in $`so(3,1)`$, and a 1-form connection $`A_\mu ^{IJ}`$ also with values in the Lorentz algebra and with curvature $`F_{\mu \nu }^{IJ}`$, but with the addition of quadratic constraints on the $`B`$ field enforced by the Lagrange multiplier $`\varphi _{IJKL}`$ (with the symmetry $`\varphi _{IJKL}ϵ^{IJKL}=0`$).

The equations of motion are:

$`𝒟B=dB+[\omega ,B]=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}`$ (39)
$`F^{IJ}(\omega )=\varphi ^{IJKL}B_{KL}`$
$`B^{IJ}B^{KL}=eϵ^{IJKL},`$ (40)
and it can be proven Mike ; DP-F  that the constraints on the $`B`$ field have the following four sectors of solutions:

$`I`$ $`B^{IJ}=\pm e^Ie^J`$ (41)
$`II`$ $`B^{IJ}=\pm {\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}ϵ_{KL}^{IJ}e^Ke^L`$ (42)
This means that in one of these sectors: $`SS_{EH}=ϵ_{IJKL}e^Ke^LF^{IJ}`$, i.e. the theory reduces to pure Einstein gravity in first order formalism.

Also, the other sector, differing by a global change of sign only, is classically equivalent to this, while the other two, related by Hodge duality to the “geometric” ones, corresponds to “pathological geometries” with no physical interpretation (see the cited literature for more details). It can be shown that, classically, solutions having their Cauchy data in one sector do not evolve away from it, unless degeneracy of the tetrad field is allowed and some pathological case is excluded (see Mike  for a complete analysis), so that really the presence of different sectors of solutions, related to each other by a $`𝐙_2\times 𝐙_2`$ symmetry, may manifest itself physically only at the quantum level.

In particular, the $`𝐙_2`$ symmetry between the two geometric sectors of the theory may affect the path integral quantization of the theory, and the very meaning of the path integral; remember in fact that a $`𝐙_2`$ symmetry on the lapse function $`NN`$ makes the difference between a path integral realization of the projector onto solutions of the Hamiltonian constraint and a path integral representing the Feynman propagator between states, or causal transition amplitude, both in the relativistic particle case and in quantum gravity in metric formalism, as we have shown above. A simple argument suggests that this may happen also in our spin foam context; in fact, a $`3+1`$ splitting of the Plebanski action (see Peldan ), after the imposition of the constraints on the $`B`$ field (we are then analysing the $`3+1`$ splitting of the Palatini action for gravity), shows that a change of sign in the $`B`$ field is equivalent to a change of sign in the lapse function, so that both sectors of solutions are taken into account in a path integral realization of the projector operator. The $`B`$ field has in fact the role of metric field in this $`BF`$ type formulation of gravity, and a canonical 3+1 splitting basically splits its independent components into the triple ($`h_{ab}`$, $`N^a`$, $`N`$) (with all these expressed in terms of the tetrad field) as in the usual metric formulation. The reason for and effect of this will be explained below. Of course, more worrying would be the presence, in the quantum theory, of the two “non geometric” sectors.

A quantization of gravity along such lines should start by identifying suitable variables corresponding to the $`B`$ and $`A`$ variables of the Plebanski action, and then the correct translation at the quantum level of the above constraints on the $`B`$ field, leading to a realization of the path integral

$$𝒵=\underset{}{}𝒟B𝒟A𝒟\varphi e^{iS(B,A,\varphi )}$$
(43)
(we have included a sum over spacetime manifolds), possibly in a not only formal way.

Both in light of the “finitary” philosophy mentioned above and hoping to make sense of the path integral by a lattice type of regularization, we pass to a simplicial setting in which the continuum manifold is replaced by a simplicial complex, and the continuum fields by variables assigned to the various elements of this complex. In particular, the $`B`$ field is associated to the triangles in the triangulation by: $`B^{IJ}(t)=_tB_{\mu \nu }^{IJ}(x)𝑑x^\mu dx^\nu `$.

With this discretization, the constraints on the $`B`$ field become constraints on the bivectors $`B^{IJ}so(3,1)^2(𝐑^4)`$ associated to the various triangles, and more precisely bc1 bc2 DP-F :

* the bivectors change sign when the orientation of the triangles is changed;
* the bivectors are “simple”, i.e. they satisfy $`B(t)B(t)=0`$;
* the bivectors associated to neighbouring triangles sum to simple bivectors, i.e. $`B(t)B(t^{})=0`$ if $`t`$ and $`t^{}`$ share an edge;
* the four bivectors associated to the faces of a tetrahedron sum to zero.

The Barrett-Crane quantization then proceeds associating to each triangle an irreducible representation of the Lorentz group in the principal unitary series, with the identification:

$$B^{IJ}(t)J^{IJ}((n,\rho )_t),$$
(44)
where the $`J`$’s are the generators of the Lorentz algebra, so that a representation $`(n,\rho )_t`$ ($`n`$ a half-integer number, and $`\rho `$ a real positive number) and the corresponding representation space (on which the $`J`$’s act) are attached to each triangle, and assigning to each tetrahedron a tensor in the space given by the tensor product of the four representation spaces associated to its faces. In fact, there exists an ambiguity (Immirzi ambiguity) in the above correspondence, which corresponds to identifying $`B`$ with $`\alpha J+\beta J`$. However, it was shown that such a modification doesn’t change the final resulting spin foam model, which remains the Barrett-Crane model our . This identification then allows a quantum translation of the classical constraints given above as:

* the representations change to their dual when the orientation of the triangles is changed;
* the representations to be used are only the “simple” ones $`(n,0)`$ or $`(0,\rho )`$, i.e. those for which $`C_2=J((n,\rho )_t)J((n,\rho )_t)=n\rho =0`$, where $`C_2`$ is the second invariant Casimir of the algebra;
* the representations associated to neighbouring triangles sum to simple representations, i.e. $`J((n,\rho )_t)J((n,\rho )_t^{})=0`$ if $`t`$ and $`t^{}`$ share an edge; this also implies that the tensor for a tetrahedron must be decomposed into its Clebsch-Gordon series with summands which are non-zero for simple representations only;
* the tensor associated to a tetrahedron is an invariant tensor under the action of $`SO(3,1)`$.

These conditions allow the identification of a unique state $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ for each tetrahedron in the triangulation, given by the invariant tensor described above (the Barrett-Crane intertwiner); moreover, it can be shown bb , at least in the Euclidean case, that this state satisfies automatically (i.e. without further restrictions) the condition:

$$(U^++U^{})\mathrm{\Psi }=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}$$
(45)
where $`U^\pm `$ is the (chiral) operator for the 3-volume of the tetrahedron bb ; this fact is crucial, because it implies that the two non-geometric sectors of solutions of the classical theory are in fact absent in a quantum theory that implements the above constraints. This is in particular the case for the Barrett-Crane spin foam model.

To obtain the Barrett-Crane partition function one may proceed in several ways, using either a lattice gauge theory type of derivation danruth ; boundary  or the novel technology of field theories over group manifolds gft1 ; ale1 ; alejandro1 ; alejandro2 ; gft2 . In the first case one starts with a lattice gauge theory formulation of $`BF`$ theory and imposes the BC constraints directly on this using suitable projectors, while in the second one writes down a partition function for a field living on four copies of $`SL(2,𝐂)`$ with a suitable action for it, and the choice of action leading to the BC model differs from the one leading to a spin foam formulation of 4-dimensional BF theoy by the insertion of the same kind of projectors; in the first approach the simplicial geometry underlying the construction is slightly more transparent, but one remains limited by a choice of a fixed triangulation of spacetime, while in the second it is possible to define a sum over triangulations that gives a complete formulation of the theory.

In both cases the projectors used realize the simplicity constraint by imposing that the representations of the Lorentz group that label the faces of the 2-complex dual to the triangulation or, equivalently, the triangles in the triangulation itself have a realization in the spaces of $`L^2`$ integrable functions on the hyperboloids in Minkowski space bc2 ; in particular, the model based on the unitary irreducible representations $`(0,\rho )`$ in the principal series, on which we concentrate our attention here, is obtained imposing $`SU(2)`$ invariance on the $`SL(2,𝐂)`$ representation functions corresponding to each face, thus realizing these representation in the upper hyperboloid $`H^+=\{x/xx=1,x^0>0\}SL(2,𝐂)/SU(2)`$ in Minkowski space; using these representations the third constraint above regarding the decomposition of the tensor product of simple representations turns out to be automatically implemented; the last (closure) constraint is instead implemented as invariance under the action of the Lorentz group of the product of the four representation functions corresponding to the four triangles of the same tetrahedron. In the existing model, based on real representations of the Lorentz group or, equivalently, on a real field theory, the first constraint concerning the orientation of the triangles is not implemented as the final model does not discriminate between a representation and its dual; this fact, that can be seen in many different ways, is crucial for a correct implementation of causality, and for a correct understanding of the quantum geometry of the model, as we discuss at length in what follows.

Whatever derivation one decides to pursue, the resulting model, based on continuous representations, is:

$$Z=(\underset{f}{}_{\rho _f}𝑑\rho _f\rho _f^2)(\underset{v,e_v}{}_{H^+}𝑑x_{e_v})\underset{e}{}𝒜_e(\rho _k)\underset{v}{}𝒜_v(\rho _k,x_i)$$
(46)
with the amplitudes for edges (tetrahedra) (to be considered as part of the measure, as we argue again below) and vertices (4-simplices) being given by:

$`A_e(\rho _1,\rho _2,\rho _3,\rho _4)={\displaystyle _{H^+}}𝑑x_1𝑑x_2K^{\rho _1}(x_1,x_2)K^{\rho _2}(x_1,x_2)K^{\rho _3}(x_1,x_2)K^{\rho _4}(x_1,x_2)`$ (47)
(48)
$`A_v(\rho _k,x_i)=K^{\rho _1}(x_1,x_2)K^{\rho _2}(x_2,x_3)K^{\rho _3}(x_3,x_4)K^{\rho _4}(x_4,x_5)K^{\rho _5}(x_1,x_5)`$
$`K^{\rho _6}(x_1,x_4)K^{\rho _7}(x_1,x_3)K^{\rho _8}(x_3,x_5)K^{\rho _9}(x_2,x_4)K^{\rho _{10}}(x_2,x_5).`$ (49)
The variables of the model are thus the representations $`\rho `$ associated to the triangles of the triangulation (faces of the dual 2-complex), there are ten of them for each 4-simplex as can be seen from the expression of the vertex amplitude, and the vectors $`x_iH^+`$, of which there is one for each of the five tetrahedra in each 4-simplex amplitude, so that two of them correspond to each interior tetrahedron along which two different 4-simplices are glued. We will discuss the geometric meaning of all these variables in the following section. As written, the partition function is divergent, due to the infinite volume of the Lorentz group (of the hyperboloid), and the immediate way to avoid this trivial divergence is just to remove one of the integration over $`x`$ for each edge and 4-simplex amplitude, or, in other terms, to gauge fix one variable. It was shown that, after this gauge fixing is performed, the resulting partition function (for fixed triangulation) is finite finite1 ; finite2 .

The functions $`K`$ appearing in these amplitudes have the explicit expression:

$$K^{\rho _k}(x_i,x_j)=\frac{2\mathrm{sin}(\eta _{ij}\rho _k/2)}{\rho _k\mathrm{sinh}\eta _{ij}}$$
(50)
where $`\eta _{ij}`$ is the hyperbolic distance between the points $`x_i`$ and $`x_j`$ on the hyperboloid $`H^+`$.

The amplitudes describe an interaction among the $`\rho `$’s that couples different 4-simplices and different tetrahedra in the triangulation whenever they share some triangle, and an interaction among the different tetrahedra in each 4-simplex.

In the presence of boundaries, formed by a certain number of tetrahedra, the partition function above has to be supplemented by boundary terms given by a function $`C_{(j_1k_1)(j_2k_2)(j_3k_3)(j_4k_4)}^{\rho _1\rho _2\rho _3\rho _4}(x)`$ for each boundary tetrahedron boundary , being defined as:

$$C_{(j_1k_1)(j_2k_2)(j_3k_3)(j_4k_4)}^{\rho _1\rho _2\rho _3\rho _4}(x)=D_{00j_1k_1}^{\rho _1}(x)D_{00j_2k_2}^{\rho _2}(x)D_{00j_3k_3}^{\rho _3}(x)D_{00j_4k_4}^{\rho _4}(x)$$
(51)
where $`x`$ is a variable in $`SL(2,𝐂)/SU(2)`$ assigned to each boundary tetrahedron, $`D_{00j_ik_i}^{\rho _i}(x)`$ is a representation matrix for it in the representation $`\rho _i`$ assigned to the $`ith`$ triangle of the tetrahedron, and the matrix elements refer to the canonical basis of functions on $`SU(2)`$, where the $`SU(2)`$ subgroup of the Lorentz group chosen is the one that leaves invariant the $`x`$ vector thought of as a vector in $`𝐑^4`$, with basis elements labelled by a representation $`j_i`$ of this $`SU(2)`$ and a label $`k_i`$ for a vector in the corresponding representation space.

It is this term that originates the amplitude for internal tetrahedra after gluing of two 4-simplices along it (it can be seen as just a half of that amplitude with the integration over the hyperboloid dropped) danruth ; boundary .

Also, we stress that the partition function above should be understood as just a term within some sum over triangulations or over 2-complexes to be defined, for example, by a group field theory formalism. Only this sum would restore the full dynamical content of the quantum gravity theory.

### III.2 ..and its quantum and classical geometry.

Let us now describe the classical and quantum geometry of the Barrett-Crane model, i.e. the geometric meaning of the variables appearing in it, the classical picture it furnishes, and the quantum version of it. Conceptually, the spin foam formulation of the quantum geometry of a manifold is more fundamental than the classical approximation of it one uses, and this classical description should emerge in an appropriate way only in a semi-classical limit of the model; however, the derivation of the model from a classical theory helps in understanding the way it encodes geometric information both at the classical and quantum level, even before this emergence is properly understood.

#### III.2.1 Geometric meaning of the variables of the model

In this part, we describe the physical-geometrical content of the mathematical variables appearing in the model. We summarize and collect many known facts and show how the resulting picture that of a discrete piecewise flat space-time, whose geometry is described by a first order Regge calculus action (as we then explain in the next section), in order to explain the physical intuition on which the rest of our work is based.

The variables of the model are the irreducible representations $`\rho `$’s, associated to each face of the 2-complex, and the $`x`$ variables, associated to each edge, one for each of the two vertices it links, as we discussed above.

Consider the $`\rho `$ variables. They result from the assignment of bivector operators to each face of the 2-complex, in turn coming from the assignment of bivectors to the triangles dual to them. Given these bivectors, the classical expression for the area of the triangles is: $`A_t^2=B_tB_t=B_t^{IJ}B_{tIJ}`$, and this, after the geometric quantization procedure outlined above, translates into: $`A_t^2=C_1=J^{IJ}(\rho _t)J_{IJ}(\rho _t)=\rho _t^2+1>0`$bc1 ; bc2 . Thus the $`\rho `$’s determine the areas of the triangles of the simplicial manifold dual to the 2-complex. The same result, here obtained by geometric quantization of the bivector field, can also be confirmed by a direct canonical analysis of the resulting quantum theory, studying the spectrum of the area operator acting on the simple spin network states that constitute the boundary of the spin foam, and that represent the quantum states of the theory. We describe all this in the following. Moreover, from the sign of the (square of the) areas above, it follows that all the triangles in the model are spacelike, i.e. their corresponding bivectors are timelike, and consequently all the tetrahedra of the manifold are spacelike as well, being constituted by spacelike triangles onlybc2 . As a confirmation, one may note that we have chosen a particular intertwiner -the simple or Barrett-Crane intertwiner- between simple representations such that it decomposes into only continuous simple representations, which translates in algebraic language the fact that timelike bivectors add up to timelike bivectors. Clearly, also this sign property of the areas can be confirmed by a canonical analysis.

Consider now the $`x`$ variables. They have the natural interpretation of normals to the tetrahedra of the manifold, and the tetrahedra being spacelike, they have values in $`H^+`$, i.e. they are timelike vectors in $`𝐑^4`$bar ; bw . The reason for them being in $`𝐑^4`$ is easily explained. The Barrett-Crane model corresponds to a simplicial manifold, and more precisely to a piecewise flat manifold, i.e patches (the 4-simplices) of flat space-time glued together along their common tetrahedraregge . To each flat patch or 4-simplex (a piece of $`𝐑^4`$) is attached a local reference frame. In other words, we are using the equivalence principle replacing the usual space-time points by the 4-simplices: at each 4-simplex, there exists a reference frame in which the space-time is locally flat. This explains why the normals to the tetrahedra are vectors in $`𝐑^4`$ and also why there are two different normals for each tetrahedron: they are the same vector seen in two different reference frames. How does the curvature of spacetime enter the game? Having a curved space-time means that these reference frames are not identical: we need a non-trivial connection to rotate from one to another (see also hendryk ). In this sense, the non-flatness of spacetime resides in the tetrahedra, in the fact that there are two normals $`x,yH^+`$ attached to each tetrahedron, one for each 4-simplex to which the tetrahedron belongs. The (discrete) connection is uniquely defined, up to elements of the $`SU(2)`$ subgroup that leaves invariant the normal vector on which the connection acts, by the Lorentz transformation $`g`$ rotating from one of these normals to the other ($`gx=y`$): it is a pure boost connection mapping two points in $`H^+`$ into one another<sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1The reconstruction of a (discrete) connection or parallel transport from the two normals associated to each tetrahedron was also discussed in hendryk  in the context of the Euclidean Barrett-Crane model. . Thus, the association of two variables $`x`$ and $`y`$ to each edge (tetrahedron) of the 2-complex (triangulation) is the association of a connection variable $`g`$ to the same edge (tetrahedron) (this is of course the connection variable associated to the edges, and then constrained by the simplicity constraints, that is used in all the various derivations of the Barrett-Crane model gft1 ; gft2 ; ale1 ; alejandro1 ; danruth ; boundary ; hendryk ). From the product of connection variables around a closed loop in the dual complex, e.g. the boundary of a face dual to a triangle, one obtains a measure of the curvature associated to that triangle, just as in traditional simplicial formulations of gravity (i.e. Regge calculus) or in lattice gauge theory. This set of variables, connections on links and areas on faces, is the discrete analogue of the set of continuous variables $`(B(x),A(x))`$ of the Plebanski formulation of gravity.

Of course, we have a local Lorentz invariance at each “manifold point” i.e each 4-simplex. Mathematically, it corresponds to the Lorentz invariance of the amplitude associated to the 4-simplex. Physically, it says that the 5 normals $`(x_A,x_B,\mathrm{},x_E)`$ to the 5 tetrahedra of a given 4-simplex are given up to a global Lorentz transformation: $`(x_A,x_B,\mathrm{},x_E)`$ is equivalent to $`(gx_A,gx_B,\mathrm{},gx_E)`$. This is also saying that the local reference frame associated to each 4-simplex is given up to a Lorentz transformation, as usual. Now, given two adjacent 4-simplices, one can rotate one of the two in order to get matching normals on the common tetrahedron. If it is possible to rotate the 4-simplices to get matching normals everywhere, then the (discrete) connection would be trivial everywhere (i.e. the identity transformation) and we would get the equivalent of a classically flat space-time. However, unlike in 3 dimensions where we have only one normal attached to each triangle, in 4 dimensions, we do not want only flat space-times and the “all matching normals” configuration is only one particular configuration among the admissible ones in the Barrett-Crane model.

The presence of such Lorentz invariance shows that the true physical variables of the model are indeed pairs of $`x`$ vectors and not the vectors themselves. One may use this invariance to fix one of the vectors in each 4-simplex and to express then the others with respect to this fixed one; in other words the geometric variables of the model, for each vertex (4-simplex) are the hyperbolic distances between two vectors corresponding to two tetrahedra in the 4-simplex, measured in the hyperboloid $`H^+`$, i.e. the variables $`\eta `$ appearing in the formula 50. These in turn have the interpretation, in a simplicial context, of being the dihedral angles between two tetrahedra sharing a triangle, up to a sign depending on whether we are dealing with external or internal angles, in a Lorentzian context (see BarFoxon ). These angles may also be seen as the counterpart of a connection variable inside each 4-simplex.

To sum up the classical geometry underlying the Barrett-Crane model, we have patches (4-simplices) of flat spaces glued together into a curved space. This curvature is introduced through the change of frame associated to each patch, which can be identified to the change of time normal on the common boundary (tetrahedron) of two patches. Now a last point is the size of the flat space patches, or in other words the (space-time) volume of a fixed 4-simplex in term of the 10 $`\rho `$ representations defining it. This volume can be obtained as the wedge product of the bivectors associated to two (opposite) triangles -not sharing a common edge- of the 4-simplex, which reads:

$$𝒱^{(4)}=\frac{1}{30}\underset{t,t^{}}{}\frac{1}{4!}ϵ_{IJKL}sign(t,t^{})B_t^{IJ}B_t^{}^{KL}$$
(52)
where $`(t,t^{})`$ are couples of triangles of the 4-simplex and $`sign(t,t^{})`$ register their relative orientations. After quantization, the $`B`$ field are replaced by the generators $`J`$ and this formula becomes:

$$𝒱^{(4)}=\frac{1}{30}\underset{t,t^{}}{}\frac{1}{4!}ϵ_{IJKL}sign(t,t^{})J_t^{IJ}J_t^{}^{KL}.$$
(53)
There is another formula to define the volume, which can be seen as more suitable in our framework in which we use explicitely the (time) normals to the tetrahedra:

$$(𝒱^{(4)})^3=\frac{1}{4!}ϵ^{abcd}N_aN_bN_cN_d$$
(54)
where is the oriented normal with norm $`|N_i|=v_i^{(3)}`$ the 3-volume of the corresponding tetrahedron (more on the 4-volume operator in the Barrett-Crane model can be found in danhend ).

#### III.2.2 Simplicial classical theory underlying the model

Thus the classical counterpart of the quantum geometry of the Barrett-Crane model, or in other words the classical description of the geometry of spacetime that one can reconstruct at first from the data encoded in the spin foam, is a simplicial geometry described by two sets of variables, both associated to the triangles in the manifold, being the areas of the triangles themselves and the dihedral angles between the two normals to the two tetrahedra sharing each triangle. A classical simplicial action that makes use of such variables exists and it is given by the traditional Regge calculus action for gravity. However, in the traditional second-order formulation of Regge calculus both the areas and the dihedral angles are thought of as functions of the edge lengths, which are the truly fundamental variables of the theory. In the present case, on the other hand, no variable corresponding to the edge length is present in the model and both the dihedral angles and the areas of triagles have to be seen as fundamental variables. Therefore the underlying classical theory for the Barrett-Crane model is a first order formulation of Regge Calculus based on angles and areas.

A formulation of 1st order Regge calculus was proposed by Barrett balone  in the Euclidean case based on the action:

$$S(l,\theta )=\underset{t}{}A_t(l)ϵ_t=\underset{t}{}A_t(l)(2\pi \underset{\sigma (t)}{}\theta _t(\sigma ))$$
(55)
where the areas $`A_t`$ of the triangles $`t`$ are supposed to be functions of the edge lengths $`l`$, $`ϵ_t`$ is the deficit angle associated to the triangle $`t`$ (the simplicial measure of the curvature) and $`\theta _t(\sigma )`$ is the dihedral angle associated to the triangle $`t`$ in the 4-simplex $`\sigma (t)`$ containing it. The dihedral angles $`\theta `$, being independent variables, are required to determine, for each 4-simplex, a unique simplicial metric, a priori different from the one obtained by means of the edge lengths (actually, unless they satisfy this constraint, the ten numbers $`\theta `$’s can not be considered dihedral angles of any 4-simplex, so we admit a slight language abuse here). Analytically, this is expressed by the so-called Schläfli identity:

$$\underset{t}{}A_td\theta _t=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}.$$
(56)
The variations of this action are to be performed constraining the angles to satisfy such a requirement, and result in a proportionality between the areas of the triangles computed from the edge lengths and those computed from the dihedral angles:

$$A_t(l)A_t(\theta ).$$
(57)
The meaning of this constraint is then to assure the agreement of the geometry determined by the edge lengths and of that determined by the dihedral angles, and can be considered as the discrete analogue of the “compatibility condition” between the $`B`$ field and the connection, basically the metricity condition for the connection, in the continuum Plebanski formulation of gravity. Note, however, that this agreement is required to exist at the level of the areas only. This constraint may also be implemented using a Lagrange multiplier and thus leaving the variation of the action unconstrained (see balone ). In this case, the full action assumes the form:

$$S=\underset{t}{}A_t(l)ϵ_t+\underset{\sigma }{}\lambda _\sigma det\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ij}(\theta ),$$
(58)
where $`\lambda _\sigma `$ is a Lagrange multiplier enforcing the mentioned constraint for each 4-simplex, and the constraint itself is expressed as the vanishing of the determinant of the matrix $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ij}=\mathrm{cos}\theta _{ij}=\mathrm{cos}(x_ix_j)`$, where the $`x`$’s variables are the normals to the tetrahedra in the 4-simplex introduced above.

The main difference with the situation in the Barrett-Crane model is that, in this last case, the areas are not to be considered as functions of the edge lengths, but independent variables. The relationship with the dihedral angles, however, remains the same, and this same first order action is the one to be considered as somehow “hidden” in the spin foam model. We will discuss more the issue of the simplicial geometry and of the classical action hidden in the Barrett-Crane model amplitudes, and of its variation, when dealing with the Lorentzian case.

We point out that other formulations of first order Regge Calculus exist, with different (but related) choices for the fundamental variables of the theory CDM Katsy Katsy2 . Also, the idea of using the areas as fundamental variables was put forward at first in Rov  and then studied in Make1 Make2 , with the possibility of describing simplicial geometry only in terms of areas of triangles, i.e. of inverting the relation between edge lenghts and areas and thus expressing all geometric quantities (including the dihedral angles) in terms of the latter, was analysed in BRW MW ReggeWill .

#### III.2.3 Quantum geometry: quantum states on the boundaries and quantum amplitudes

From this classical geometry of the Barrett-Crane model, it is easier to understand the quantum geometry defined in terms of (simple) spin networks geometry states. Similarly to the Ponzano-Regge case, the boundary states are Lorentz invariant functionals of both a boundary connection and the normals on the boundary boundary2  and a basis of the resulting Hilbert space is given by the simple spin networks.

More precisely, let’s consider a (decorated) spin foam with boundary. The boundary will be made of 4-valent vertices glued with each other into an oriented graph. Such structure is dual to a 3d triangulated manifold. Each edge of the graph is labelled by a (face) representation $`\rho `$ and each vertex corresponds to a (simple) intertwiner between the four incident representations. On each edge $`e`$, we can put a group element $`g_e`$ which will correspond to the boundary connection boundary  and we can decompose the simple intertwiner such that a ”normal” $`x_v_+`$ lives at each vertex $`v`$ boundary2 .

That way, the boundary state is defined by a Lorentz invariant functional

$$\varphi (g_e,x_v)=\varphi (k_{s(e)}^1g_ek_{t(e)},k_v.x_v)\text{ for all }k_vSL(2,𝐂)$$
(59)
where $`s(e)`$ and $`t(e)`$ are respectively the source vertex and the target vertex of the oriented edge $`e`$. This imposes an $`SU(2)`$ invariance at each vertex $`v`$ once we have fixed the normal $`x_v`$. One should go further and impose an $`SU(2)`$ invariance for each edge incident to the vertex in order to impose the simplicity constraints boundary2 . One endows this space of functionals with the $`SL(2,𝐂)`$ Haar measure:

$$\mu (\varphi )=_{SL(2,𝐂)^E}\text{d}g_e\varphi (g_e,x_v).$$
(60)
This measure is independent of the choice for the $`x_v`$ due to the gauge invariance 59. Then an orthonormal basis of the Hilbert space of $`L^2`$ functions is given by the simple spin networks :

$$s^{\{\rho _e\}}(g_e,x_v)=\underset{e}{}K_{\rho _e}(x_{s(e)},g_e.x_{t(e)})=\underset{e}{}\rho _ex_{s(e)}(j=0)|g_e|\rho _ex_{t(e)}(j=0),$$
(61)
where $`\rho x(j=0)`$ is the vector of the $`\rho `$ representation invariant under $`SU(2)_x`$ (the $`SU(2)`$ subgroup leaving the vector $`x`$ invariant). The general notation is $`\rho xjm`$ for the vector $`|m`$ in the $`SU(2)`$ representation space $`V^j`$ in the decomposition $`R^\rho =_jV_{(x)}^j`$ of the $`SL(2,𝐂)`$ representation $`\rho `$ into representations of $`SU(2)_x`$.

We should point out that this same Hilbert space for kinematical states comes out of the canonical analysis of the (generalised) Hilbert-Palatini action in a explicit covariant framework. Indeed requiring no anomaly of the diffeomorphism invariance of the theory, the Dirac brackets, taking into account the second class constraints (simplicity constraints), of the connection $`𝒜_i^X`$ ($`i`$ is the space index and $`X`$ is the internal Lorentz index) and the triad $`P_X^i`$ read sergei :

$$\{\begin{array}{ccc}\{I𝒜,I𝒜\}_D& =& 0\\ \{P,P\}_D& =& 0\\ \{𝒜_i^X,P_Y^j\}_D& =& \delta _i^jI_Y^X.\end{array}$$
(62)
where $`I`$ projects the Lorentz index $`X`$ on its boost part, this latter being defined relatively to the time normal $`x`$ (which is built from the triad field). One can try to loop quantize this theory: one would like to consider spin networks of the connection $`𝒜`$ (cylindrical functions), but in fact, one needs so-called projected spin networks which depend on both the connection $`𝒜`$ and the time normal field boundary2 . Then it turns out that quantizing these commutations relations at a finite number of points (the vertices $`v`$ of the graph) lead to the imposition of the simplicity constraints at the vertices and the same space of simple spin networks 61 as shown in link . The graph, representing the quantum geometry state, then has edges labelled with $`SL(2,𝐂)`$ simple representations $`\rho 0`$, which corresponds to an area carried by this edge given by:

$$area\sqrt{\rho ^2+1}.$$
(63)
The restriction to a finite number of points is natural from the spin foam viewpoint since the space-like slice are made of tetrahedra glued together and that these same tetrahedra are considered as the points of this 3d-slice. This explicit relation between the spin foam setting and the canonical theory is likely to provide us with information on the dynamics of gravity in both theories.

We have described up to now closed boundaries. What happens is we deal with an open boundary? Then one needs to introduce open spin networks. Let’s consider a graph with open ends. At all vertices will still live a $`H^+`$ element (time normal). The edges in the interior will be defined as previously: on each edge live a $`\rho `$ representation and a $`SL(2,𝐂)`$ group element. On the exterior edges, we still have a $`SL(2,𝐂)`$ representation and a group element, but we introduce some new label, at the (open) end of the edge, which is a vector in the (edge) representation. Within its $`SL(2,𝐂)`$ representation, this vector $`v_e`$ can be defined in an orthonormal basis by its $`SU(2)`$ (sub)representation $`j`$ and its label $`m`$ witin this representation. Then the overall functional is defined as

$$s^{\{\rho _e,j_{ext},m_{ext}\}}(g_e,x_v)=\underset{eint}{}K_{\rho _e}(x_{s(e)},g_e.x_{t(e)})\underset{eext}{}\rho _ex_{int(e)}(j=0)|g_e|\rho _ev_e=(j_e,m_e),$$
(64)
where $`int(e)`$ is the (interior) vertex of the exterior edge $`e`$. The scalar product is defined by the integration over all $`g_e`$ variables. And we get an orthonormal basis labelled by $`\{\rho _e,j_{ext},m_{ext}\}`$.

We are then ready to explain the geometry behind the amplitude of the Barrett-Crane model. There are two different ingredients : the 4-simplex amplitude and the eye diagram corresponding to the tetrahedron amplitude. The 4-simplex amplitude defines the dynamics of the space-time; it is to be understood as an operator going from the Hilbert space of quantum states of a (past) hypersurface to the Hilbert space of quantum states of (future) hypersurface deduced from the first one by a Pachner move corresponding to the 4-simplex. The eye diagram is a statistical weight which can be understood as the number of quantum states of a tetrahedron defined by the areas of its 4 triangles. Indeed, a (classical) tetrahedron is defined by 6 numbers (the 6 lengths of its edges as an example) and is not fully determined by the 4 areas of its faces: we miss the values of the area of the 2 interior parallelograms bb . This indeterminacy persists at the quantum level. In fact, at the quantum level we can specify, in addition to the 4 representations corresponding to the 4 triangle areas, an additional variable for each tetrahedron as a basis for the space of intertwiners between the four representations in a decomposition of the 4-valent vertex. However, we are forbidden to specify a further variable corresponding to the other parallelogram area, by a kind of indeterminacy relation that forces us to leave it completely undetermined bb . More precisely, let’s note $`B_1,\mathrm{}B_4`$ the bivectors of the four triangles of the tetrahedron. Then, one can construct the areas $`A_i=|B_i|`$ of the four triangles, the intermediate areas $`A_{ij}=|B_i+B_j|`$ of the internal parallelograms and the volume squared of the tetrahedron $`U=B_1(B_2\times B_3)`$. When quantizing, the bivectors become $`SL(2,𝐂)`$ generators in some representation $`\rho _i`$ and $`A_i^2`$ become the Casimir of these representations. As for $`A_{ij}^2`$, it lives in $`\rho _i\rho _j`$ and is diagonal on each (sub)representation $`\rho _{ij}`$ in this tensor product. Such an intermediate representation defines an intertwiner between all four $`\rho _1,\mathrm{},\rho _4`$. When computing the commutator of two such internal areas one gets

$$[A_{12}^2,A_{13}^2]=4U.$$
(65)
This way, $`A_{12}^2`$ and $`A_{13}^2`$ appear as conjugate variables: if one fixes the value of $`A_{12}`$ then $`A_{13}`$ is undetermined. This can be understood a purely algebraic level: if one defines the intertwiner between $`\rho _1,\mathrm{},\rho _4`$ through $`\rho _{12}`$, then this intertwiner decomposes on a whole range of possible $`\rho _{13}`$, without fixing it. Thus, the tetrahedron is never fully specified: the quantum tetrahedron is a fuzzy tetrahedron, with a fluctuating volume $`U`$ ($`U`$ depends on both $`\rho _{12}`$ and $`\rho _{13}`$). Then the eye diagram basically measures the number of possible states for a tetrahedron (each corresponding to a possible choice of the unspecified parameter) that do not correspond to different configuations in the partition function. This explains why we consider it as part of the measure in the partition function. This statistical interpretation is well-defined in the Euclidean case for which the dimension of the space of states is finite. In the Lorentzian case, the parameters are continuous and the dimensions become infinite, so that it is better to think in terms of the connection: we replace the data of the 2 interior areas by the Lorentz transformation between the frames of the two 4-simplices sharing the tetrahedron, which defines the connection internal to the tetrahedron and is equivalent to the choice of two $`H^+`$ elements (time-normals). The eye diagram can be obtained by integrating over the possible connections ($`SL(2,𝐂)`$ group elements relating the two normals attached to the tetrahedron) living at the tetrahedron. This “eye diagram” weight allows all possible connections, thus it randomizes the connection and correspondingly the space-time curvature. More precisely, it appears as the amplitude associated to a connection living at a tetrahedron defined by its four triangle representations (areas). We are aware that baez  proposed another (natural) interpretation for another tetrahedron weight in the spin foam amplitude which does not fit with our point of view. Here, we interpret the eye diagram as a localised quantum fluctuation corresponding to what we could call a quantum refractive wave. Refractive waves, as introduced in refrac , are a new class of gravitational waves. They allow a discontinuity in the metric while areas (null-directions) are still well-defined. This area matching condition is exactly what we have in the Barrett-Crane model: two touching 4-simplices will agree on the four face areas of their common tetrahedron while disagreeing on its complete geometry (different time normals, different volumes). Moreover it is this indeterminacy which is responsible for the non-topological character of the Barrett-Crane model. Indeed, in the topological BF model, as explained previously, the weight associated to the eye diagram is simply 1.

One main difference with the Euclidean Barrett-Crane model is that the degeneracy of the quantum Lorentzian 4-simplices is un-probable, so that we would not have to consider any contribution to the amplitude from such 4-simplices. This is due to the Plancherel measure. A degenerate 4-simplex would have some of its triangles of zero area. However, $`\rho =0`$ has Plancherel measure $`\rho ^2=0`$ and equivalently has a zero probability. One can be more precise and look at one particular triangle area probability graph. As we simply would like to get an idea of what’s happening, to simplify the calculations, one can suppose the space to be isotropic around the triangle. Then the amplitude for the area $`\rho `$ is

$$𝒜(\rho )=\rho ^2\left(\frac{\mathrm{sin}(\rho \theta )}{\rho \mathrm{sinh}(\theta )}\right)^N\theta =\frac{1}{N}(2\pi \theta _0)$$
(66)
where $`N`$ is the number of 4-simplices sharing this same triangle and $`\theta _0`$ is the deficit angle corresponding to the curvature around the given triangle, $`\theta _0=0`$ corresponding an approximatively flat space-time. First, the amplitude is 0 for $`\rho =0`$. Then, we see that we have a discrete series of maxima which hints toward the possibility of generating dynamically a discrete area spectrum. Moreover, this spectrum scales with the curvature. Nevertheless, there is a big difference of the amplitude of each extremum, which increases with $`N`$ i.e when we refine the triangulation. Therefore, for important $`N`$, the most probable area $`\rho `$ is of order 1 (likely between 1 and 6) and the other extrema are negligible. This is a reason why it is likely that the relevant regime will be for plenty of small 4-simplices at small $`\rho `$ and not in the asymptotical limit $`\rho \mathrm{}`$.

#### III.2.4 The Barrett-Crane model as a realization of the projector operator

Now we turn to the interpretation of the amplitudes defined by the Barrett-Crane model. What kind of transition amplitudes do they represent? We have seen that a path integral realization can be given, in the relativistic particle case, both for the projector operator over physical states, thus realizing in a covariant manner the physical inner product among canonical states, and for the Feynman propagator, or causal transition amplitude; moreover, we have seen that a similar situation is present at least formally for quantum gravity. Now we have a model that furnishes a rigorous construction for a sum-over-histories formulation of quantum gravity. The issue is then to realize whether we have in our hands a projector operator or a causal evolution operator.

We will argue that the Barrett-Crane model is a realization of the projector operator for quantum gravity. This is not a novel argument for sure; in fact it was put forward for example in ansdorf  and in projector .

In ansdorf , in fact, a discretization of the projector operator was proposed, leading to an expression very close to that provided by spin foam models.

In the 4-dimensional case, for the topology $`\mathrm{\Sigma }\times [0,1]`$, with $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ compact, using a regular lattice with spatial sections $`V`$ and with time spacing $`ϵ`$ and spatial spacing $`l`$, this would read:

$`P:={\displaystyle 𝒟Ne^{i_0^1𝑑t{\scriptscriptstyle d^3xN(x,t)(x)}}}P_{ϵ,l}={\displaystyle 𝒟Ne^{i_{t=0}^{1/ϵ}_{xV}ϵl^3N(x)(x)}}=`$
$`={\displaystyle \underset{t}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{x}{}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}}𝑑Te^{iϵl^3T}={\displaystyle \underset{t}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{x}{}}{\displaystyle _0^+\mathrm{}}𝑑T\left(e^{iϵl^3T}+e^{iϵl^3T}\right)={\displaystyle \underset{t}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{x}{}}U_{ϵ,l}(t,x).`$ (67)
The expression above is then interpreted as a sum over triangulations and the operators $`U_{ϵ,l}`$, being (a sum over) local evolution operators, implement the action of the projector operator on a given spin network and are identified with the quantum operators corresponding to given Pachner moves in the spin foam case ansdorf . The integral over $`T`$ is then the analogue of the integral over the algebraic variables in the spin foam model.

More generally, the idea is, we stress it again, to regard the partition function for a spin foam model as giving the physical inner product between (simple) spin network states as the action of a projector operator over kinematical spin network states:

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_2\mathrm{\Psi }_1_{phys}=\mathrm{\Psi }_2𝒫\mathrm{\Psi }_1_{kin}=\underset{\mathrm{\Delta }}{}\lambda (\mathrm{\Delta })Z_\mathrm{\Delta },$$
(68)
where the full partition function for the given spin foam model has been split into a sum over triangulations (or their dual 2-complexes) $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ of partition functions associated with each given one.

Still at a formal level, one may thus give a discretized expression for the projector operator as a sum over triangulations of projectors associated with each triangulation. In general one may expect then this projector to have the form:

$`Z(\mathrm{\Psi }_1,\mathrm{\Psi }_2)`$ $`=`$ $`{}_{kin}{}^{}\mathrm{\Psi }_2P_{=0}\mathrm{\Psi }_1_{kin}^{}={\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}}dTe^{iT{\scriptscriptstyle 𝑑x(x)}}={\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{\Delta }}{}}\lambda (\mathrm{\Delta }){\displaystyle \underset{\sigma }{}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}}dT_\sigma e^{iT_\sigma _\sigma }=`$ (69)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{\Delta }}{}}\lambda (\mathrm{\Delta }){\displaystyle \underset{\sigma }{}}{\displaystyle \underset{t_\sigma }{}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}}𝑑T_{t_\sigma }e^{iT_{t_\sigma }_{t_\sigma }}={\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{\Delta }}{}}\lambda (\mathrm{\Delta }){\displaystyle \underset{\sigma }{}}{\displaystyle \underset{t_\sigma }{}}{\displaystyle _0^+\mathrm{}}𝑑T_{t_\sigma }\left(e^{iT_{t_\sigma }_{t_\sigma }}+e^{iT_{t_\sigma }_{t_\sigma }}\right),`$
depending on whether the discretization procedure associates the relevant integral (i.e. the relevant integration variable $`T`$ or some analogue of it) to the 4-simplices $`\sigma `$ or more specifically to each triangle $`t_\sigma `$ within each 4-simplex $`\sigma `$.

To obtain a more conclusive argument for considering a given spin foam model as realizing the projection over physical states one has however to go beyond this and try to identify the distinguishing features of the projector operator in the particular spin foam model under consideration.

What are then these distinguishing features?

We have already discussed how the difference between a path integral realization of the projector operator and a path integral formula for the causal transition amplitude is marked uniquely by the presence in the former of a $`Z_2`$ symmetry relating positive and negative lapses (or proper times), both in the relativistic particle case and in the formal path integral quantization of gravity in the metric formalism.

We have also seen this symmetry present in the Ponzano-Regge model, which is the 3-dimensional model corresponding to the 4-dimensional Barrett-Crane one.

Moreover, we have also noted that a similar and related $`Z_2`$ symmetry has to be present in the Barrett-Crane model as well as a result of the quantization procedure that originated its construction.

The task is then to locate clearly where, in the peculiar structure of the amplitudes of the model, this symmetry is implemented and how.

Let us come back then to the expression for the Barrett-Crane partition function 46.

We see that, considering the amplitude for the faces and those for the internal edges as part of the measure, as we suggest is the most reasonable thing to do, the model has exactly the form 69, since the amplitude for the vertices of the 2-complex, encoding the dynamics of the theory and thus related to the hamiltonian constraint, is given by a product of terms each associated to the triangles in the 4-simplex dual to the given vertex.

Even more remarkably, the $`K`$ functions associated with each triangle are given by a sum of two exponentials with opposite signs (with weighting factors in the denominators), resembling the structure of the formal discretization given above.

Can we interpret the $`K`$ functions, because of their structure, as encoding the same $`Z_2`$ symmetry in the proper time (or in the lapse) that characterizes the projector operator? The answer is yes.

Consider in fact that, as we noted above, the symmetry $`TT`$ in the proper time is the same as the symmetry $`NN`$ in the lapse function, in turn originating from the symmetry $`BB`$ in the bivector field, that we expect to be present in the model at the quantum level. A change in the sign of $`B`$ in our discretized context corresponds to a change in the orientation of the triangles on the simplicial manifold, and to a consequent change in the orientation of the tetrahedra. Therefore we expect the sum over both signs of proper time, assuring the implementation of the Hamiltonian constraint but also erasing causality requirements from the model, to be realized in our simplicial model as a sum over both orientations of the triangles and of the tetrahedra in the manifold. This is indeed what happens.

In fact, let us analyse more closely the $`Z_2`$ symmetry of the $`K`$ functions. We use the unique decomposition of $`SL(2,𝐂)`$ representation functions of the 1st kind (our $`K`$ functions) into representation functions of the 2nd kind (we denote them $`K^\pm `$)Ruhl  and we write the $`K`$ function as

$`K^{\rho _{ij}}(x_i,x_j)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2\mathrm{sin}(\eta _{ij}\rho _{ij}/2)}{\rho _{ij}\mathrm{sinh}\eta _{ij}}}={\displaystyle \frac{e^{i\eta _{ij}\rho _{ij}/2}}{i\rho _{ij}\mathrm{sinh}\eta _{ij}}}{\displaystyle \frac{e^{i\eta _{ij}\rho _{ij}/2}}{i\rho _{ij}\mathrm{sinh}\eta _{ij}}}`$ (70)
$`=`$ $`K_+^{\rho _{ij}}(x_i,x_j)+K_{}^{\rho _{ij}}(x_i,x_j)=K_+^{\rho _{ij}}(x_i,x_j)+K_+^{\rho _{ij}}(x_i,x_j)`$
$`=`$ $`K_+^{\rho _{ij}}(x_i,x_j)+K_+^{\rho _{ij}}(x_j,x_i)=K_+^{\rho _{ij}}(\eta _{ij})+K_+^{\rho _{ij}}(\eta _{ij}),`$
which makes the following alternative expressions of the same $`Z_2`$ symmetry manifest:

$$K^{\rho _{ij}}(x_i,x_j)=K^{\rho _{ij}}(\eta _{ij})=K^{\rho _{ij}}(\eta _{ij})=K^{\rho _{ij}}(x_i,x_j)=K^{\rho _{ij}}(x_j,x_i).$$
(71)
We see that the symmetry characterizing the projector operator is indeed implemented as a symmetry under the exchange of the arguments of the $`K`$ functions associated to each triangle in each 4-simplex (so that the resulting model does not register any ordering among the tetrahedra in each 4-simplex), or as a symmetry under the change of sign (orientation) of the two tetrahedra sharing the given triangle (so that the resulting model does not register the orientation of the triangle itself), and these in turn are equivalent to a change in sign of the hyperbolic distance between the two points on the upper hyperboloid $`H^+`$ identified by the vectors normal to the tetrahedra themselves. It is also possible to consider negative hyperbolic distance on the upper hyperboloid $`H^+`$ as positive distances on the lower hyperboloid $`H^{}=\{x𝐑^{3,1}|xx=1,x^0<0\}`$ in Minkowski space, so that the symmetry we are considering is in the way the model uses both the upper and lower hyperboloids in Minkowski space. Note also the analogy between 70, for the kernels $`K`$ and 7 for the Hadamard Green function for the relativistic particle (maybe it is possible to make this analogy more precise by studying the quantization of relativistic particles on the upper hyperboloid $`H^+`$, but we do not analyze this possibility in the present paper).

It is interesting to note also that the reality and positivity of the partition fuction BaezChristensen , a puzzling feature indeed if the model was to represent a sum-over-geometries realization of a causal transition amplitude, i.e. the matrix elements in a spin network basis of some evolution operator, is perfectly understandable if the model represents a path integral realization of the projector operator (it is always possible to find a basis such that the matrix elements of the projector operator are real and positive). This symmetry can be traced back exactly to the reality of the $`K`$ functions and this in turn can be clearly seen as due to the symmetry worked out above.

## IV Implementing causality: a causal transition amplitude and the causal set reformulation of the BC model

We turn now to the problem of implementing causality in the Barrett-Crane model, i.e. constructing a causal transition amplitude starting from the a-causal one. Having identified the $`Z_2`$ symmetry that erase causality from the model, the problem is now to break this symmetry in a consistent and meaningful way. Our strategy is to find this consistent restriction by requiring that the resulting amplitude has stationary points corresponding to good simplicial Lorentzian geometries. We analyse first the case of a single 4-simplex and give at the end a causal amplitude for the whole simplicial manifold. After we have obtained the causal amplitude, we show how the resulting causal model fits in the general framework of quantum causal sets (or histories).

### IV.1 A causal amplitude for the Barrett-Crane model

#### IV.1.1 Lorentzian simplicial geometry

First, we will carry out a stationary point analysis in the Lorentzian setting as done in the Euclidean case in bw , more precisely we study the action associated to a single 4-simplex and study its (non-degenerate) stationary point. They will turn out to be oriented Lorentzian 4-simplices<sup>2</sup><sup>2</sup>2During the course of writing the present manuscript, the results reported in this subsection and in the following were published in schlafli .

For this purpose, we first give some details about simplicial Lorentzian geometry, introduce notations and derive the Schläfli identity encoding the constraint between the angle variables in a first order Regge formalism based on the area-angle variables as explained in section III.2.2. We denote by $`x_i^+`$ the five un-oriented normals to the tetrahedra of the 4-simplex and $`n_i=\alpha _ix_i`$ the oriented (outward) normal with $`\alpha _i=\pm 1`$ (we can think also of $`+x_i`$ as living in $`^+`$ and of $`x_i`$ as living in $`^{}`$). We call boost parameter, associated to the triangle shared by the $`i`$ and $`j`$ tetrahedra, the quantity

$$\eta _{ij}=\mathrm{cosh}^1(x_ix_j)0$$
(72)
and then the dihedral Lorentz angle is defined as

$$\theta _{ij}=\alpha _i\alpha _j\eta _{ij}=\alpha _i\alpha _j\mathrm{cosh}^1(\alpha _i\alpha _jn_i.n_j).$$
(73)
When $`\alpha _i\alpha _j=1`$, $`\theta _{ij}=\eta _{ij}`$ is called an interior angle and, in the opposite case, it is called an exterior angle. Then, the (spherical) kernel in the $`\rho `$ representation reads

$$K_\rho (x_i,x_j)=\frac{\mathrm{sin}\rho \eta _{ij}}{\rho \mathrm{sinh}\eta _{ij}}=\underset{ϵ=\pm 1}{}\frac{ϵ}{i\rho \mathrm{sinh}\eta _{ij}}e^{iϵ\rho \eta _{ij}}.$$
(74)
The Schläfli identity is the (differential of the) constraint relating the 10 angles stating that they come from the 5 normals to the tetrahedra: the 5 normals $`n_i`$ defined a unique (geometric) 4-simplex (up to overall scale) bc1  and the 10 angles defined from them through 72 are therefore not independent. They satisfy

$$\underset{ij}{}A_{ij}\text{d}\theta _{ij}=\underset{ij}{}\alpha _i\alpha _jA_{ij}\text{d}\eta _{ij}=0$$
(75)
where $`A_{ij}`$ are the areas of the 10 triangles of the defined 4-simplex. Following balone , the proof is straightforward from the definition of the angles. Let us call

$$\gamma _{ij}=n_in_j=\alpha _i\alpha _j\mathrm{cosh}\eta _{ij}=\alpha _i\alpha _j\mathrm{cosh}(\alpha _i\alpha _j\theta _{ij}).$$

Then the closure of the 4-simplex reads

$$\underset{i=1}{\overset{i=5}{}}|v_i^{(3)}|n_i=0$$
(76)
where $`v_i^{(3)}`$ is the 3-volume of the tetrahedron $`i`$. This implies

$$\underset{i}{}|v_i^{(3)}|\gamma _{ij}=0,j,$$
(77)
that is the existence of the null vector $`(|v_i^{(3)}|)_{i=1\mathrm{}5}`$ for the matrix $`\gamma _{ij}`$. Differentiating this relation with respect to the metric information (this will be the area variables in our case) and contracting with the null vector, we obtain

$$\underset{ij}{}|v_i^{(3)}||v_j^{(3)}|\text{d}\gamma _{ij}=\underset{ij}{}|v_i^{(3)}||v_j^{(3)}|\alpha _i\alpha _j\mathrm{sinh}(\eta _{ij})\text{d}\eta _{ij}=0.$$
(78)
Finally, one can easily show that

$$\mathrm{sinh}(\eta _{ij})|v_i^{(3)}||v_j^{(3)}|=\frac{4}{3}|𝒱^{(4)}|A_{ij}$$
(79)
where $`𝒱^{(4)}`$ is the 4-volume of the 4-simplex. Then one can conclude with the Schläfli identity 75.

The first order action for Lorentzian Regge calculus, with the constraint on the dihedral angles enforced by means of a Lagrange multiplier $`\mu `$ balone , then reads:

$$S_R=\underset{t}{}A_tϵ_t+\underset{\sigma }{}\mu _\sigma det(\gamma _{ij}^\sigma )=\underset{t}{}A_t\underset{\sigma /t\sigma }{}\theta _{ij}(\sigma )+\underset{\sigma }{}\mu _\sigma det(\gamma _{ij}^\sigma )$$
(80)
where the areas and the angles are considered as independent variables.

#### IV.1.2 Stationary point analysis and consistency conditions on the orientation

Let us now turn to the Barrett-Crane amplitude and study its stationary points. For a given fixed triangulation $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, with triangles $`t`$, tetrahedra $`T`$ and 4-simplices $`s`$, the amplitude reads

$$A(\mathrm{\Delta })=\underset{ϵ_t=\pm 1}{}\underset{t}{}\rho _t^2\text{d}\rho _t\underset{T}{}A_{eye}(\{\rho _t,tT\})\underset{s}{}_{(^+)^4}\underset{Ts}{}\text{d}x_T^{(s)}\left(\underset{ts}{}\frac{ϵ_t}{i\rho _t\mathrm{sinh}\eta _t}\right)e^{i_{ts}ϵ_t\rho _t\eta _t}$$
(81)
where $`\rho _t`$ are the representation labelling the triangles (faces of the triangulations, dual to the faces of the 2-complex) and $`A_{eye}(T)`$ are the amplitude of the eye diagram associated to the tetrahedron $`T`$ (obtained by gluing together two 4-intertwiners labelled by the 4 representations living on the faces of $`T`$).

The action for a single (decoupled) 4-simplex is then

$$S=\underset{ts}{}ϵ_t\rho _t\eta _t,$$
(82)
with the angles $`\theta _t`$ given by 72 and thus constrained by the Schläfli identity. Consequently, we have

$$\text{d}S=\underset{t=(ij)s}{}ϵ_t\rho _t\text{d}\eta _t=\mu \times \underset{ij}{}\alpha _i\alpha _jA_{ij}\text{d}\eta _{ij}$$
(83)
where $`\mu 𝐑`$ is the Lagrange multiplyer enforcing the constraint. Therefore, we obtain the following equations defining the stationary points

$$\{\begin{array}{ccc}ϵ_{ij}\alpha _i\alpha _j& =& sign(\mu )\\ \rho _{ij}& =& |\mu |A_{ij}\end{array}$$
(84)
This means that the area of the triangles are given (up to scale) by the $`SL(2,𝐂)`$ representation labels $`\rho _{ij}`$ and that we have a consistency relation between the orientation of the tetrahedra $`\alpha _i`$, the orientation of the triangles $`ϵ_{ij}`$ and the global orientation of the 4-simplex $`sign(\mu )`$. This means that only some particular choices of values for $`ϵ`$ corresponds to stationary points being represented by well-defined Lorentzian simplicial geometries

These stationary oriented 4-simplices are supposed to be the main contribution to the full path integral in the asymptotical limit $`\rho _{ij}\mathrm{}`$ up to degenerate 4-simplices as dealt with in baez2 ; schlafli ; laurentasymp . Indeed, such degenerate 4-simplices dominate the (standard) Euclidean Barrett-Crane model in the asymptotical limit. Ways to sidestep this problems have been proposed through modifications of the model in baez2 ; laurentasymp . However, it will maybe turn out that the asymptotical limit is not the physically relevant sector and that small $`\rho `$’s would dominate the path integral, when we take into account the coupling between 4-simplices (through the representations $`\rho `$’s). Nevertheless, we will not discuss this issue in the present work and we will focus on the orientation issue and the resulting causal structure of the discrete spin foam manifold.

Through the stationary point analysis, we have analysed the orientability of a single quantum 4-simplex, and obtained consistency relations between the global oriention of the simplex, the orientations of its 5 tetrahedra and the orientations of its 10 triangles (linking the tetrahedra). Now, can we extend this orientation to the whole spin foam ? This means having consistent orientations of all the tetrahedra: if a tetrahedron is past-oriented for one 4-simplex, then it ought to be future-oriented for the other. Therefore a consistent orientation is a choice of $`\mu _v`$ (for 4-simplices) and $`\alpha _{T,v}`$ (for each tetrahedron $`T`$ attached to a 4-simplex $`v`$) such that:

$$T,\mu _{p(T)}\alpha _{T,p(T)}=\mu _{f(T)}\alpha _{T,f(T)}$$
(85)
where $`v=p(T)`$ and $`v=f(T)`$ are the two 4-simplices sharing $`T`$.

In fact, this imposes constraints on the signs around each loop of 4-simplices which are equivalent to requiring an orientable 2-complex and gft1  proposed a way to generate only orientable 2-complexes from the group field theory defining the spin foam model. Indeed the field over $`SL(2,𝐂)^4`$ (or $`Spin(4)`$ in the Euclidean case), which represents the quantum tetrahedron, is usually chosen to be symmetric under any exchange of its arguments:

$$\varphi (g_1,g_2,g_3,g_4)=\varphi (g_{\sigma (1)},g_{\sigma (2)},g_{\sigma (3)},g_{\sigma (4)})$$
(86)
It was proposed to orient the tetrahedron by requiring its invariance under even permutations $`ϵ(\sigma )=1`$. This was shown to lead to only orientable spin foams.

#### IV.1.3 A causal transition amplitude

Now that we know what are the consistency conditions on the $`ϵ`$ that correspond to well-defined geometric configurations, we can fix these variables and thus break the $`Z_2`$ symmetry they encode (average over all possible orientations of the triangles) and that erases causality from the model. This means choosing a consistent orientation $`\{\mu _v,\alpha _{T,v},ϵ_t\}`$ for all simplices satisfying 84 and 85. In other words we fix the $`ϵ_t`$ in the amplitude, and thus the orientation, to the values corresponding to the stationary points in the a-causal amplitude (of course we do not impose the other conditions coming from the stationary point analysis, i.e. we do ot impose the equations of motion). Then, this leads to a causal amplitude, constructed by picking from the general Barrett-Crane model only the terms corresponding to the chosen orientations $`ϵ_t`$ of the triangles:

$`A_{causal}(\mathrm{\Delta })`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{s}{}}{\displaystyle _{(_+)^4}}{\displaystyle \underset{Ts}{}}\text{d}x_T^{(s)}{\displaystyle \underset{ts}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ_t}{i\rho _t\mathrm{sinh}\eta _t}}{\displaystyle \underset{t}{}\rho _t^2\text{d}\rho _t\underset{T}{}A_{eye}^T(\{\rho _t\}_{tT})\underset{s}{}e^{i_{ts}ϵ_t\rho _t\eta _t}}`$ (87)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{s}{}}{\displaystyle _{(_+)^4}}{\displaystyle \underset{Ts}{}}\text{d}x_T^{(s)}{\displaystyle \underset{ts}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ_t}{i\rho _t\mathrm{sinh}\eta _t}}{\displaystyle \underset{t}{}\rho _t^2\text{d}\rho _t\underset{T}{}A_{eye}^T(\{\rho _t\}_{tT})e^{i_t\rho _t_{s|ts}\theta _t(s)}}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{s}{}}{\displaystyle _{(_+)^4}}{\displaystyle \underset{Ts}{}}\text{d}x_T^{(s)}{\displaystyle \underset{ts}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ_t}{i\rho _t\mathrm{sinh}\eta _t}}{\displaystyle \underset{t}{}\rho _t^2\text{d}\rho _t\underset{T}{}A_{eye}^T(\{\rho _t\}_{tT})e^{iS_R}}`$
For a (simplicial) manifold $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ with boundaries, we need to take in account the boundary term, which are exactly the same as for the usual Barrett-Crane model. This corresponds to a particular local causal structure defined by the relative orientation of the 4-simplices: a 4-simplex is in the immediate past of another if they share a tetrahedron whose normal is future oriented for the first and past oriented for the other.

Of course the above amplitude has to be understood within a sum over oriented 2-complexes or triangulations:

$$Z_{causal}=\underset{\mathrm{\Delta }}{}\lambda (\mathrm{\Delta })A_{causal}(\mathrm{\Delta }).$$
(88)
An interesting question is: do we have any closed time-like curves? Taking all $`\mu `$ positive, these time-like curves correspond to a loop (closed sequence of 4-simplices linked by common tetrahedra) along which all triangles have a $`ϵ_t=1`$ orientation. A priori such defects are allowed. Maybe they would automatically vanish when looking at the stationary points of the full spin foam amplitude. Nevertheless, we can take advantage of the fact that in the present context we are working with a fixed triangulation, and just consider only oriented triangulation without such patological configurations allowed. This way, we get a proper (global) causal structure on the spin foam. The Barrett-Crane model can then be considered not simply as a sum over (combinatorial) manifolds $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ but more precisely as a sum over manifolds provided with a (consistent) causal structure $`(\mathrm{\Delta },\{\mu _v,\alpha _T,ϵ_t\})`$.

Let us now discuss the features of the causal amplitude, and compare the resulting spin foam model with other approaches to Lorentzian quantum gravity.

Let us first re-write the causal partition function in a simplified (and physically more transparent) form. Basically, it is just:

$$Z_{causal}=\underset{\mathrm{\Delta }}{}\lambda (\mathrm{\Delta })𝒟\theta _t(\mathrm{\Delta })𝒟A_t(\mathrm{\Delta })e^{iS_R^\mathrm{\Delta }(A_t,\theta _t)}$$
(89)
What are its features?

* It is clearly a realization of the sum-over-geometries approach to quantum gravity, in a simplicial setting; its ingredients are: a sum over causally well-behaved triangulations (or equivalently 2-complexes), where the causal relations are encoded in the orientation of each triangulation (2-complex); a sum over metric data for each triangulation, being given by the areas of triangles and dihedral angles, treated as independent variables, and with a precise assignment of a measure (albeit a rather complicated one) for them; an amplitude for each geometric configuration given by the exponential of ($`i`$ times) the first order Lorentzian Regge action. It can thus be seen as a path integral for Regge calculus, with an additional sum over triangulations.
* The geometric variables have a natural algebraic characterization and origin in the representation theory of the Lorentz group, and the only combinatorial data used from the underlying triangulation is from the “first 2 levels” of it, i.e. from its dual 2-complex only; in other words, the model is a spin foam modelbaezspinfoam danrev .
* It realises the general definition given in gupta  for a causal spin foam model (it is, to the best of our knowledge, its first non-trivial example), except for the use of the full Lorentz group instead of its $`SU(2)`$ subgroup; its boundary states are thus covariant (simple) spin networks and it can be regarded as giving a path integral definition of the Hamiltonian constraint in covariant loop quantum gravity.
* Each “first layer” of the dual 2-complex being a causal set, the model identifies it a the fundamental discrete structure on which quantum gravity has to be based, as in the causal set approach Sork ; the main difference is that it contains additional metric data intended to determine a consistent length scale (volume element), which instead, in the traditional causal set approach is meant to be obtained by “counting only”, i.e. just in terms of the combinatorial structure of the causal set (number of vertices, etc.); this is a particular case included in the general form of the partition function above; in fact, if we fix all the geometric data to some arbitrary value (and thus neglect the integrals in the formula), then presumably any calculation of geometric quantities, e.g. the 4-volume of each 4-simplex, reduces to a counting problem; we will analyse in details the causal set reformulation of the model in the following section.
* Also, if we fix all the geometric data to be those obtained from a fixed edge length for any edge in the triangulation (e.g. the Planck length), then what we obtain is the conventional and well-studied sum over triangulations in the dynamical triangulations approach to quantum gravity, for causally well-behaved Lorentzian triangulations; the additional integrals, if instead left to be performed, can be intepreted as providing a sum over proper times that is usually not implemented in that approach; this may leave hopes for the expected emergence of a smooth classical limit from the present simplicial model, in light of the important results obtained recently amblol1 amblol2 amblol3  on Lorentzian dynamical triangulations.

Let us finally comment on the analogy with the relativistic particle case. We have seen that different quantum amplitudes may be constructed for a relativistic particle: the Wightman function, solution of all the constraints (defining a projector operator), distinguishing the order of its arguments, and taking into account all the trajectories of interest for a single paticle (not anti-particle); the Hadamard function, solution of all the constraints, not registering the order of its arguments, and including all the trajectories of both particle and anti-particle solutions; the Feynman propagator, not a solution of the constraint, registering the order of its arguments, again including both particle and anti-particle solutions, and which reduces to the appropriate Wightman function depending on the time-ordering of its arguments. It is clear that for a single-particle theory and if we do not consider anti-particles, then the Wightman function is all we have, and all we need to define a physical transition amplitude between states. The Feynman propagator is of not much use in a theory of a single particle, but needed in a theory of many particles. If we want instead something which is a solution to the constraint, but not reflect any ordering, then the only answer is the Hadamard function. It can be interpreted as a particle plus an antiparticle amplitude, but the point is really just the ordering of the arguments in the amplitude. Now, the question we have to ask in our spin foam case is: is it a single particle or a multiparticle theory? does the amplitude we have in the Barrett-Crane model reflect the ordering of the arguments or not? if we impose it to reflect such an ordering, what kind of amplitude do we get?

Now, the BC amplitude is real and does not reflect any ordering, so it cannot correspond to a Wightman function, and it must instead correspond to the Hadamard function (for what the particle analogy is useful). The one may say that in order to impose causality (ordering-dependence), I have to reduce it to the Wightman function. In any case this will give us something different from the Barrett-Crane amplitude as it is. How to impose the restriction, then? The only possible restriction imposing an ordering dependence seem to be the one we performed. This is basically because in the spin foam we have only combinatorial data and representations, and the only ordering we can impose is an ordering at the level of the 2-complex. If we do it, and ask for an amplitude that reflects it, we get the above causal amplitude.

Now, is there a way to interpret what we do in terms of the particle analogy? Work on this issue is in progress, and the idea would be that what we have is a multiparticle theory, where we have a particle on the hyperboloid corresponding to each simple representation (there is indeed an interpretation of the kernel $`K`$ as a green function for a particle on the hyperboloid); then the two parts of the kernel would correspond to the two Wightman functions and the kernel itself to the Hadamard function; so the two different orientations for the same particle-face-representation correspond to something like a particle and an antiparticle, or to the two Wightman functions $`G^+`$ and $`G^{}`$. In this context the right amplitude would be exactly that selecting a particle for one orientation and an antiparticle for the opposite orientation, i.e. simply one or the other Wightman function. This is what we do, in fact, and this is what the Feynman propagator does in the particle case.

Of course we should bear in mind that we should not rely too much on perturbative QFT, nor on the particle analogy, but nevertheless they can give some insight; moreover, we know from the group field theory that in some non-trivial sense what we are dealing with is indeed a form of perturbative field theory, and that the spin foam for fixed 2-complex is exactly a perturbative Feynman graph, although very peculiar.

### IV.2 Barrett-Crane model as a quantum causal set model

In the new formulation presented above, the Barrett-Crane model fits into the general scheme of quantum causal sets (or quantum causal histories) models, as developed in fotlee fot fot2 set . It represents, in fact, the first explicit and highly non-trivial example of such a class of models. As previously said, all the metric information of a Lorentzian space-time can be encoded in its causal set skeleton apart from its conformal factor, and therefore causal sets are a natural context for a discrete and finitary space-time model Sorkin Sork . Reformulating the Barrett-Crane model in these terms helps in understanding the underlying causal structure in the model, and gives insight on the properties required for quantum causal sets (especially the evolution operators).

#### IV.2.1 General framework for quantum causal sets

Let us first recall the basic elements of this scheme.

Consider a discrete set of events $`\{p,q,r,s,\mathrm{}\}`$, endowed with an ordering relation $``$, where the equal sign implies that the two events coincide. The ordering relation is assumed to be reflexive ($`q,qq`$), antisymmetric ($`qs,sqq=s`$) and transitive ($`qr,rsqs`$). These properties characterize the set as a partially ordered set, or poset, or, interpreting the ordering relation as a causal relation between two events, as a causal set (see Fig.4). In this last case, the antisymmetry of the ordering relation, together with transitivity, implies the absence of closed timelike loops. We also report a few definitions that will be useful later:

* the causal past of an event $`p`$ is the set $`P(p)=\{r|rp\}`$;
* the causal future of an event $`p`$ is the set $`F(p)=\{r|pr\}`$;
* an acausal set is a set of events unrelated to each other;
* an acausal set $`\alpha `$ is a complete past for the event $`p`$ if $`rP(p),s\alpha |rsorsr`$;
* an acausal set $`\beta `$ is a complete future for the event $`p`$ if $`rF(p),s\beta |rsorsr`$;
* the causal past of an acausal set $`\alpha `$ is $`P(\alpha )=_iP(p_i)`$ for all $`p_i\alpha `$, while its causal future is $`F(\alpha )=_iF(p_i)`$ for all $`p_i\alpha `$;
* an acausal set $`\alpha `$ is a complete past (future) of the acausal set $`\beta `$ if $`pP(\beta )(F(\beta ))q\alpha |pqorqp`$;
* two acausal sets $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ are a complete pair when $`\alpha `$ is a complete past of $`\beta `$ and $`\beta `$ is a complete future for $`\alpha `$.

From a given causal set, one may construct another causal set given by the set of a-causal sets within it endowed with the ordering relation $``$, so that $`\alpha \beta `$ if $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ form a complete pair, also required to be reflexive, antisymmetric and transitive. This poset of a-causal sets is actually the basis of the quantum histories model.

The quantization of the causal set is as follows (see Fig.4). It can be seen as a functor between the causal set and the categories of Hilbert spaces.

We attach an Hilbert space $``$ to each node-event and tensor together the Hilbert spaces of the events which are spacelike separated, i.e. causally unrelated to each other; in particular this gives for a given a-causal set $`\alpha =\{p_i,\mathrm{},p_i,\mathrm{}\}`$ the Hilbert space $`_\alpha =_i(p_i)`$.

Then given two a-causal sets $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ such that $`\alpha \beta `$, we assign an evolution operator between their Hilbert spaces:

$$E_{\alpha \beta }:_\alpha _\beta .$$
(90)
In the original Markopoulou’ scheme, the Hilbert spaces considered are always of the same (finite) dimension, and the evolution operator is supposed to be unitary, and fully reflecting the properties of the underlying causal set, i.e. being reflexive: $`E_{\alpha \alpha }=Id_\alpha `$, antisymmetric: $`E_{\alpha \beta }E_{\beta \alpha }=Id_\alpha E_{\alpha \beta }=E_{\beta \alpha }=Id_\alpha `$, and transitive: $`E_{\alpha \beta }E_{\beta \gamma }=E_{\alpha \gamma }`$.

The evolution operators mapping complete pairs that are causally unrelated to each other, and can be thus tensored together, may also be tensored together, so that there are cases when given evolution operators may be decomposed into elementary components. More on the dynamics defined by this type of models can be found in fot fot2 .

Another possibility is to assign Hilbert spaces to the causal relations (arrows) and evolution operators to the nodes-events. This matches the intuition that an event in a causal set (in spacetime) is an elementary change. This second possibility gives rise to an evolution that respects local causality, while the first one does not. This is also the possibility realised in the causal Barrett-Crane model, as we are going to discuss. Also, this hints at a fully relational reformulation of quantum mechanics Carlo Smolin , since the Hilbert space between two events, $`a`$ and $`b`$, admits the interpretation of describing the possible states of “$`a`$ seen by $`b`$” (and reciprocally); this is closely related also to the “many-views” category-theoretic formulations of sum-over-histories quantum mechanics Isham .

#### IV.2.2 The quantum BC causal set

Let us consider now how this scheme is implemented in the causal Barrett-Crane model defined above.

The starting point is an oriented graph, i.e. a set of vertices linked by arrows, restricted to be 5-valent (each vertex is source or target of five arrows) and to not include closed cycles of arrows. Interpreting the arrows as representing causal relations, this is a causal set as defined above, the orientation of the links reflects the ordering relation among the vertices, and it does not contains closed timelike curves.

Because of the restriction on the valence, it can be decomposed into building blocks, in the sense that for each vertex, only one out of four possibilities may be realised, depending on how the arrows are related to the vertex itself (see Fig.5).

This causal set is just the first stratum of the 2-complex on which the Barrett-Crane Lorentzian spin foam model is based, assuming it to be oriented. As such, there is a dual simplicial interpretation of the elements in it, since now the vertices are dual to 4-simplices and the oriented links are dual to oriented tetrahedra, the tetrahedra in a given 4-simplex can be considered as belonging to different spacelike hypersurfaces so that the four moves (in Fig.5, above) represent the four possible Pachner moves ($`41`$, $`32`$, and their reciprocal) giving the evolution of a 3-dimensional simplicial manifold in time.

The crucial point, we note, is the identification of the direction of the arrow in the causal set with the orientation of the tetrahedron it refers to.

The quantization is then the assignment of Hilbert spaces, the Hilbert spaces of intertwiners among four given continuous (principal irreducible unitary) representations of the Lorentz group, representing the possible states of the tetrahedra in the manifold, to the arrows of the causal set (oriented edges of the 2-complex)and of the causal Barrett-Crane amplitude defined above to the nodes of the causal set, as the appropriate evolution operator between the Hilbert spaces. We have seen in fact how it registers the ordering of its arguments and how it can thus be interpreted as the right transition amplitude between spin network states.

More precisely it proceeds as follows.

We pass from the causal set defined above to the so-called edge-poset, i.e. the causal set obtained associating a node to each arrow of the previous one and a new causal relation (arrow) linking each pair of nodes corresponding to not spacelike separated arrows in the previous graph. The building blocks of this new causal set, obtained directly form those of the previous poset, are then as in Fig.6.

To each node in this new causal set it is associated the Hilbert space of intertwiners between four simple representations of the Lorentz group. More precisely, an “intertwiner” here is the open (simple) spin network with a single vertex and with a fixed normal $`x`$ as described in equation 51, so that it is labelled by four vectors living in the four representations and the normal $`x_+`$ sitting at the vertex. The Hilbert space of such “interwiners” is then $`L^2(_+)_{\rho _1,\rho _2,\rho _3,\rho _4}`$, where we have specified the four intertwined representations. As we said above, Hilbert spaces that are a-causal to each other can be tensored together. In particular, in each of the building blocks the source nodes form a minimal a-causal set and the target nodes as well; moreover, these form a complete pair, so they are in turn linked by a causal relation in the poset of a-causal sets defined on the edge-poset; to each of these causal relations among complete pairs, i.e. to each of the building blocks of the edge-poset, we associate the causal Barrett-Crane amplitude defined earlier 87.

Taking two touching (but a-causally related) tetrahedra or correspondingly two interwtiners, we can tensor them and glue them together. Doing so, we get an open (simple) spin network with two vertices describing the state of the system formed by these two tetrahedra. More precisely, let’s note $`x_1`$ ($`x_2`$) the normal of the first (second) intertwiner, $`\alpha _1,\mathrm{},\alpha _4`$ ($`\beta _i`$) its four representations and $`(j_i,m_i)`$ ($`(k_i,n_i)`$) the vectors in the $`\alpha _i`$ ($`\beta _i`$) representations living at the ends of the one-vertex spin network. Let’s suppose that the two intertwiners are glued along the edge $`\rho =\alpha _1=\beta _1`$, then we need to identify the vectors $`(j_1,m_1)=(k_1,n_1)`$ and sum over them. This yields the right open spin networks with two vertices. At the level of the normals, the resulting tensored Hilbert space is $`L^2(x_1_+)\times L^2(x_2_+)`$. In particular, the state corresponding to any of the a-causal sets present in the building blocks is given by an open simple spin network, with representations of $`SO(3,1)`$, but also representations of a given $`SU(2)`$ subgroup and a label (“angular momentum projection”) for states in this subgroup on their open ends, and the causal Barrett-Crane amplitude for a single vertex (4-simplex), with appropriate boundary terms, interpolates between these states.

Of course, just as in the general case, states (and operators between them) referring to a-causal sets that are not causally related to each other can be tensored together again, and composite states constructed in this way evolve according to composite evolution operators built up from the fundamental ones.

Let us now discuss what are the properties of the evolution operator (Barrett-Crane causal amplitude) in this quantum causal set context.

First of all we recall that in the original Markopoulou’ scheme fot  the single poset evolution operator $`E_{\alpha \beta }`$ is required to be reflexive, antisymmetric, transitive and unitary (we have defined above what these properties mean in formulae).

However, we have stressed from the beginning that the Barrett-Crane partition function for a given 2-complex (triangulation) has to be understood as just one term in a sum over 2-complexes of all the partition functions associated with them (with some given weight). In this causal set picture this means that we have to construct a sum over causal sets interpolating between given boundary states, as outlined also in fot  and each of them will be then weighted by the causal Barrett-Crane amplitude, made out of the building block evolution operators as explained.

Therefore, given two a-causal sets $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$, the full evolution operator between them will be given by an operator $`_{\alpha \beta }`$ defined as:

$$_{\alpha \beta }=\underset{c}{}\lambda _cE_{\alpha \beta }^c$$
(91)
where we have labelled the previously defined evolution operator for a single causal set with $`c`$ to stress its dependence on the underlying graph, and we also included a possible additional weight $`\lambda _c`$ for each causal set in the sum. Recall also the formal expression for a path integral for quantum gravity we outlined in the introduction, where we split the sum over geometries into a sum over causal structures (causal sets) and a sum over metric degrees of freedom defining a length scale in a consistent way.

It is clear then that this is the real physical evolution operator between states, and this is the operator whose physical properties have to be understood<sup>3</sup><sup>3</sup>3Let us note that there is another possible way of getting rid of the dependence of the theory on any fixed underlying causal set, which is to define the complete model by a refining procedure of the initial causal set, that increases progressively (possibly to infinity) the number of vertices in it and thus defines the model as the limit of the fixed poset one under this refinement. We tend to prefer the solution provided by the sum over 2-complexes (causal sets) only because, while there exist (acausal) models that furnish this last sum, i.e. those based on the formalism of group field theory, there is (to the best of our knowledge) no implementation yet for this refining procedure. Also the first solution seems to us more in agreement with the general idea of summing over geometries to obtain the amplitudes for a quantum gravity theory.

It is sensible to require the partial operators $`E_{\alpha \beta }`$ to be reflexive, of course, since imposing this leads to an analogue property for the full evolution operator (up to a factor dependng on $`\lambda `$).

Also, we require both the fixed-poset evolution operator $`E^c`$ and the full evolution operator $``$ to be antisymmetric, to reflect the property of the underlying causal set, in the first case, and as a way to implement the physical requirement that imposing that the evolution passes through a given state changes significantly the evolution of a system, even if it then returns in the initial state.

For the other properties the situation is more delicate.

Doubts on the meaningfulness to require transitivity for the single poset evolution operator were put forward already in fot . The reason for this is that this properties implies a sort of directed triangulation invariance of the resulting model, in that the evolution results in being at least partly independent on the details of the structure of the causal set itself. In fact, transitivity implies that, as far as the evolution operators are concerned, a sequence of two causal relations linking the a-causal sets $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ and then $`\beta `$ and $`\gamma `$ is perfectly equivalent to a single arrow linking directly $`\alpha `$ and $`\gamma `$. The causal set is in turn dual to a triangulation of the manifold and this is why transitivity implies a sort of triangulation invariance.

Therefore, while it is certainly meaningful to require transitivity even for the single-poset evolution operators $`E_{\alpha \beta }^c`$ if we are dealing with 3-dimensional gravity, which is a topological field theory, it does not seem appropriate to impose it also in the 4-dimensional case, where any choice of a fixed causal set is a restriction of physical degrees of freedom of the gravitational field.

On the other hand, the situation for the full evolution operator is different. Even in the non-topological 4-dimensional case, we do require that the evolution from a given acausal set $`\alpha `$ to another $`\gamma `$ is independent of the possible intermediate states in the transition, if we sum over these possible intermediate states, i.e. we require:

$$\underset{\beta }{}_{\alpha \beta }_{\beta \gamma }=_{\alpha \gamma },$$
(92)
which is nothing else than the usual composition of amplitudes in ordinary quantum mechanics. We do not require the same property to hold if we drop the sum over intermediate states (an intermediate state corresponding to an intermediate measurement of some physical properties).

The property of unitarity of the evolution is of extreme importance. We believe that the evolution defined by the causal spin foam model has to be indeed unitary to be physically acceptable.

In fact, the initial and final a-causal sets that represent the arguments of the evolution operator, i.e. of the causal amplitudes of the model, are always assumed to form a complete pair, and this completeness should hold for any causal set summed over in the definition of the full evolution operator mapping one a-causal set into the other. Therefore, if the final a-causal set is a complete future of the first, and the initial a-causal set is a complete past for the final one (this is, we recall, the definition of a complete pair), we expect all the information from the initial state to flow to the final state. The requirement of unitarity is thus nothing more than the requirement of the conservation of information in the evolution.

We stress again, however, that the physical evolution operator is $``$, and not $`E^c`$, i.e. it involves a sum over causal sets. Any term in this sum, on the contrary, represents a truncation of the full dynamical degrees of freedom in the theory, and a restriction on the flow of information. Therefore, it is this operator that, we think, has to be required to be unitary.

But if this is the case, then the single-poset operator $`E`$ has to be not unitary, as it is easy to verify (a sum of unitary operators cannot be a unitary operator itself).

Therefore we require:

$$\underset{\beta }{}_{\alpha \beta }_{\alpha \beta }^{}=\underset{\beta }{}_{\alpha \beta }\overline{}_{\beta \alpha }=Id_\alpha $$
(93)
which implies:

$$\underset{\beta }{}E_{\alpha \beta }^cE_{\alpha \beta }^c=\underset{\beta }{}E_{\alpha \beta }^c\overline{E}_{\beta \alpha }^cId_\alpha .$$
(94)
More precisely, let’s consider a $`23`$ move as on Fig.7 and its amplitude read directly from the oriented spin foam amplitude 87 (choosing $`\mu =+1`$ for the global orientation of the 4-simplex):

$`𝒜(23)`$ $`=`$ $`E_{\rho (\alpha ,\beta ,\gamma )}^c`$ (95)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \text{d}x\text{d}y\text{d}a\text{d}b\text{d}c}{\displaystyle \underset{v,w\{x,y,a,b,c\}}{}}\mathrm{sinh}^1(\theta (v,w))`$
$`e^{+i\rho \theta (x,y)}e^{+i\alpha \theta (b,c)}e^{+i\beta \theta (c,a)}e^{+i\gamma \theta (a,b)}\times `$
$`e^{i\rho _1\theta (x,a)}e^{i\rho _2\theta (x,b)}e^{i\rho _3\theta (x,c)}e^{i\rho _4\theta (y,a)}e^{i\rho _5\theta (y,b)}e^{i\rho _6\theta (y,c)}.`$
In fact, when you “acts” with this (oriented) 4-simplex on the region of a (boundary) simple spin network made of two glued tetrahedra, one has to take into account the shift between the two normals to the tetrahedra on the boundary state and their values on the 4-simplex, so that the final evolution operator consists of, first, Lorentz transformations to go to the initial normals to the normals attached to the 4-simplex and then the transformation from a 2 vertex open spin network to a 3 vertex open spin network generated by the 4-simplex itself. This way, we recover the full oriented spin foam amplitude with the eye diagram weights. Changing the time orientation, we simply change $`\mu `$ from $`1`$ to $`1`$, which changes the above operator to its complex conjugate.

Let us now finally check that the causal amplitudes defined above have all the properties we want (or not want) them to have.

We do not have at our disposal a well-motivated definition of the complete evolution operator, coming from well understood physical requirements or obtained within some known mathematical formalism, e.g. a group field theory model. Therefore we must limit ourselves to check the wanted (and not-wanted) properties of the fixed-poset evolution operators. We will indeed check these properties in the simplest case of the evolution operator associated to a single building block of the causal set, i.e. a single choice of minimal source and target acausal sets.

We recall that the properties we want such an operator to satisfy are: reflexivity, antisymmetry, absence of transitivity and absence of unitarity. We satisfy reflexivity trivially just by defining the evolution operator $`E_{\alpha \alpha }`$ to be the identity operator.

As for antisymmetry, we clearly have $`E_{\alpha \beta }E_{\beta \alpha }\text{Id}`$.

Transitivity is NOT satisfied. Indeed, composing two 4-simplex operators is not equivalent to a single 4-simplex operator. This is straightforwardly due to the non-isomorphism of the initial and final (boundary) states of a 4-simplex move.

Finally, most relevant, unitarity is NOT satisfied either. Indeed starting from two open spin networks, made of 2 vertices or equivalently 2 glued tetrahedra, then the resulting states after a $`23`$ move should have a identical scalar to the one of the initial states. Considering that the scalar product of the initial spin networks is $`\delta (\rho \rho ^{})`$ and that the scalar product of two 3 vertex open spin network is $`\delta (\alpha \alpha ^{})\delta (\beta \beta ^{})\delta (\gamma \gamma ^{})`$, it is straightforward to check that this is not the case.

The unitarity is reserved to the evolution operator resulting from a sum over intermediate traingulations. Nevertheless, unitarity is equivalent to conservation of the information. Intuitively, this is violated by the fact that the Hilbert space of 2 vertex open spin networks is NOT isomorphic to the one of 3 vertex open spin networks: they do not carry the same information (not same number of internal representations). Is there still a way in which unitarity is verified at this microscopic level. The answer resides in the edge poset picture. Indeed, looking at Fig.6, each arrow represents the same 4-simplex, but each carry a different amplitude/operator which is a single exponential. This operator takes the normal of the past tetrahedron of the arrow to the normal of the future tetrahedron, and thus is an automorphism of $`L^2(_+)`$. This way, we can define an unitary evolution attached to the 4-simplex but it means associating not one but many unitary operators to it.

This concludes the formulation of the causal model based on the causally restricted Barrett-Crane amplitudes as a quantum causal set model.

## V Conclusions and outlooks

Let us summarize what are the results of this work.

We have studied the geometrical meaning of the variables that are present in the Barrett-Crane model and, consequently, what kind of classical description of spacetime geometry is hidden in its formulation and what action should describe the classical limit of the model; this led also to a possible explanation of the reason why the model associates two distinct normals to each tetrahedron in the interior of the manifold. We have analysed the quantum geometry of the model, identifying the Hilbert space of boundary states and its properties, and discussing the meaning of the amplitudes appearing in the partition function. We explained why the Barrett-Crane model has to be considered as providing the physical inner product between quantum gravity states, i.e. as realizing in a covariant manner (as a sum-over-histories) the projector operator onto physical states, and we identified explicitly in the model the $`Z_2`$ symmetry that characterizes such a covariant implementation of the projector.

Moreover, we have shown how it is possible to break in a consistent way this symmetry and obtain a spin foam realization of the quantum gravity analogue of the Feynman propagator, i.e. a causal transition amplitude between quantum gravity states represented by simple spin networks. The resulting spin foam model turns out to be a path integral for Lorentzian first order Regge calculus where all the geometric variables are expressed in a purely algebraic way and with a clear definition of the measure for the integration variables. It is the first explicit example of a causal spin foam model. In this way, the resulting causal model fits into the general framework of quantum causal sets (or quantum causal histories), as we described in detail, and represents the first (highly) non-trivial example of these in 4 dimensions.

The causal model we propose is thus a link among several areas of research: topological field theory, canonical quantum gravity, sum-over-histories formulation of quantum gravity, Regge calculus, causal sets and dynamical triangulations.

There are many outlooks to the present work.

As we have shown, there is a clear link between causality in spin foam models and the orientation of the 2-complex on which they are based. The causal restriction we performed on the Barrett-Crane model was indeed motivated by such a link. The resulting causal model, however, was, on the one hand, constructed in an admittedly rather ad hoc manner and not derived from some general formalism, and, on the other hand, was restricted to a choice of a fixed triangulation of the spacetime manifold, i.e. to a fixed 2-complex. The present derivations of the Barrett-Crane model, avoiding this limitation, are all based on the formalism of group field theory and define a sum over 2-complexes in a very natural way. However, they all generate un-oriented 2-complexes and thus the a-causal Barrett-Crane model. One could try to obtain the previous causal model from a group field theory and we believe that the best solution would be to use a complex field over $`SL(2,𝐂)^4`$ or else to use complex representations of $`SL(2,𝐂)`$, thus generalising the existing formalism. This possibility is currently being investigated.

It would also be interesting to study more in detail the causal $`2+1`$ spin foam model based on the discrete (positive) representations of $`SU(1,1)`$ and study its precise relation with $`2+1`$ general relativity.

As we pointed out, the causal model constructed in this paper can be seen as a quantum causal set model, but also as a generalization of the dynamical triangulation approach, in that it contains more degrees of freedom than these, allowing dynamical “length scale” data. It is thus possible to expect a cross-fertilization of these areas of quantum research, with results and techniques from causal set theory and from the dynamical triangulation approach to be imported in the causal spin foam framework. This may help in solving the many problems it still faces, such as the definition of a semi-classical approximation or of a continuum limit, or a better understanding of the structures involved in it, to name but a few.

From the point of view of quantum causal histories, many issues are to be investigated and the model presented may be where to analyse these issues in concrete and explicit terms; in particular, much has to be understood about the role of transitivity and unitarity, about the definition of observables and about the application of the general framework to problems in quantum cosmology. Moreover, the relational point of view on quantum mechanics, that these models support, has to be developed and investigated in much more details.

At the classical level, the first order version of Regge calculus advocated here as the classical theory of simplicial gravity corresponding to spin foam models has also to be studied in depth.

Another direction for further research is to look at a quantum deformed version of the Barrett-Crane model. Indeed it seems that it amounts to discretizing the normal $`x`$ to the tetrahedra, which would then live in a quantum hyperboloid made from piling fuzzy spheres roche . This quantum model would be relevant to the present discussion since it is supposed to be related to the constrained $`BF`$ theory with a cosmological constant q :

$$S_\mathrm{\Lambda }[B,A]=BF+\varphi (\text{constraints})+\mathrm{\Lambda }BB$$
(96)
Contrarily to the 3d case, where the action with cosmological constant changes sign under $`BB`$ 3dvolume , it is easy to see that in this case:

$$S_\mathrm{\Lambda }[B]=S_\mathrm{\Lambda }[B]S_\mathrm{\Lambda }[B]$$
(97)
So it could be useful to distinguish these two sectors of the theory and the link with causality issues in the presence of the cosmological constant, since the situation seems more involved than in the case studied here. A first step would be to check the relation between the $`q`$ deformation parameter and the cosmological constant $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ through, most likely, an asymptotic expansion of the quantum $`\{10\rho \}`$ symbol.

Further along the line, along the plan outlined in the introduction, is the study of the statistical mechanics of the degrees of freedom of the causal spin foam model, and of the consequent thermodynamics; in particular, one should apply the model to the study of black hole thermodynamics, having first obtained a purely algebraic and combinatorial characterization of causal horizons, and try to obtain the known relation between entropy and area of a black hole, in the appropriate semi-classical regime. It is reasonable to expect that the holographic principle Bousso MarSmo , in a backgound independent and algebraic formulation to be found, will play a major role here. If this turns out to be the possible, then much more confidence can be put on the belief that the model reproduces the dynamics of spacetime geometry given by general relativity, and that we are on the right track.

## Acknowledgements

We would like to thank R. M. Williams, C. Rovelli and H. Pfeiffer for discussions and comments on the manuscript. D.O. acknowledges financial support from EPSRC, Cambridge European Trust and Girton College.