The fermionic contribution to the spectrum of the area operator in nonperturbative quantum gravity

TL;DR

This paper investigates how fermionic matter influences the spectrum of the area operator in nonperturbative quantum gravity, finding that fermions do not alter the spectrum compared to pure gravity.

Contribution

It demonstrates that fermionic matter's contribution to the area spectrum is equivalent to gravitational spin network edges, showing no change in the spectrum from pure gravity.

Findings

Fermionic contribution to area equals gravitational spin network edges.

Spectrum of the area operator remains unchanged by fermions.

Fermions do not modify the quantum geometry spectrum.

Abstract

The role of fermionic matter in the spectrum of the area operator is analyzed using the Baez--Krasnov framework for quantum fermions and gravity. The result is that the fermionic contribution to the area of a surface $S$ is equivalent to the contribution of purely gravitational spin network's edges tangent to $S$. Therefore, the spectrum of the area operator is the same as in the pure gravity case.