Emergence of scalar matter from spinfoam model

 

Peng Xu, Yongge Ma

Phys.Rev.D80:104024,2009

Abstract:

A spinfoam model of 3D gravity non-minimally coupled with a scalar field is studied. By discretization of the scalar field, the model is worked out precisely in a purely combinational way. It is shown that the quantum physics of the scalar matter are totally encoded into the modified dynamics of SU(2) spin-network states which describe the quantum geometry of space. It turns out that the physics of the scalar matter coupled with gravity manifested in the low energy scale can be viewed as the phenomena emerged from this microscopical construction. This gives rise to a radical observation on the issue of the unification of geometry and matter.