Document Type
Article - Open Access
Publication Date
2013
Abstract/ Summary
In this paper we describe an approach to construct semiclassical partition functions in gravity which are complete in the sense that they contain a complete description of the differentiable structures of the underlying 4-manifold. In addition, we find our construction naturally includes cosmic strings. We prove that the mass density of these strings uniquely specifies the topology of the leaves of a dimension 2 foliation, and conjecture that spacetime topology emerges as a result of the symmetry breaking of the fundamental fields. We discuss some possible applications of the partition functions in the fields of both quantum gravity and topological string theory.
Repository Citation
Duston C, Semiclassical Partition Functions for Gravity with Cosmic Strings, Class. Quantum Grav. 30, 165009 (2013).
Included in
Cosmology, Relativity, and Gravity Commons, Elementary Particles and Fields and String Theory Commons, Quantum Physics Commons
