Phase transitions in TGFT: Landau-Ginzburg analysis of the causally complete Lorentzian Barrett-Crane model

TL;DR

This paper applies Landau-Ginzburg mean-field theory to the causally complete Lorentzian Barrett-Crane tensorial group field theory model, demonstrating phase transitions towards condensate states that support continuum spacetime emergence in quantum gravity.

Contribution

It extends the Landau-Ginzburg analysis to include timelike and lightlike tetrahedra, scalar fields, and various interaction types in the Lorentzian Barrett-Crane model, showing phase transitions in these complex settings.

Findings

Phase transition towards condensate states is always possible in the models studied.

Critical behavior is driven by spacelike faces related to the boost part of the Lorentz group.

Fluctuations are suppressed by the boost part, stabilizing the mean-field vacuum.

Abstract

It is expected that continuum spacetime emerges via phase transition in the tensorial group field theory (TGFT) approach to quantum gravity. Recent work on the application of Landau-Ginzburg mean-field theory to progressively realistic TGFT models has demonstrated how phase transitions can be realized therein. Here, we further develop this setting and consider the causally complete Lorentzian Barrett-Crane (BC) model which includes not only spacelike but also timelike and lightlike tetrahedra as quantum geometric building blocks. In addition, we incorporate discretized scalar fields by $\mathbb{R}$-valued variables of the group fields. In this context, we analyze models with an arbitrary single interaction of simplicial and tensor-invariant type, extend it to the model with the two vertices well-known from causal dynamical triangulations, and also consider a model with colored simplicial interactions. As a main result, we demonstrate for all those cases that a mean-field approximation of a phase transition towards a non-trivial condensate state can always be realized. In particular, we show that the critical behavior is entirely driven by spacelike faces which are characterized by the boost part of the Lorentz group. The latter induces an exponential suppression of fluctuations which then stabilizes the mean-field vacuum. In contrast, timelike faces do not play a role in this as they are characterized by the rotational and thus compact part of the Lorentz group. Since such a state is typically populated by a large number of TGFT quanta, our work lends further considerable support to the existence of a sensible continuum gravitational regime for causally complete TGFT models. Our results also indirectly strengthen the derivation of effective cosmological dynamics and the recently improved study of scalar cosmological perturbations within a mean-field approximation.