CDT meets Horava-Lifshitz gravity

TL;DR

This paper explores the connection between causal dynamical triangulations (CDT) and Hořava-Lifshitz gravity, suggesting CDT could serve as a unified nonperturbative framework for different quantum gravity theories.

Contribution

It demonstrates a striking similarity between the phase diagrams of CDT and Hořava-Lifshitz gravity, proposing a potential unification of these approaches.

Findings

CDT phase diagram resembles Lifshitz phase diagram

CDT may unify anisotropic and isotropic quantum gravity theories

Potential nonperturbative framework for quantum gravity

Abstract

The theory of causal dynamical triangulations (CDT) attempts to define a nonperturbative theory of quantum gravity as a sum over space-time geometries. One of the ingredients of the CDT framework is a global time foliation, which also plays a central role in the quantum gravity theory recently formulated by Ho\v{r}ava. We show that the phase diagram of CDT bears a striking resemblance with the generic Lifshitz phase diagram appealed to by Ho\v{r}ava. We argue that CDT might provide a unifying nonperturbative framework for anisotropic as well as isotropic theories of quantum gravity.