A holographic formulation of quantum general relativity

TL;DR

This paper presents a holographic formulation of quantum general relativity using boundary states from conformal field theory, satisfying the Bekenstein bound, and based on a new polynomial, left-right symmetric topological field theory.

Contribution

It introduces a novel constrained Sp(4) topological field theory framework for quantum gravity, connecting boundary conformal blocks with spin network quantization and extending to supergravity.

Findings

Boundary states constructed from SU(2)_L + SU(2)_R conformal blocks.

Explicit satisfaction of the Bekenstein bound.

Polynomial, left-right symmetric Hamiltonian formalism.

Abstract

We show that there is a sector of quantum general relativity which may be expressed in a completely holographic formulation in terms of states and operators defined on a finite boundary. The space of boundary states is built out of the conformal blocks of SU(2)_L + SU(2)_R, WZW field theory on the n-punctured sphere, where n is related to the area of the boundary. The Bekenstein bound is explicitly satisfied. These results are based on a new lagrangian and hamiltonian formulation of general relativity based on a constrained Sp(4) topological field theory. The hamiltonian formalism is polynomial, and also left-right symmetric. The quantization uses balanced SU(2)_L + SU(2)_R spin networks and so justifies the state sum model of Barrett and Crane. By extending the formalism to Osp(4/N) a holographic formulation of extended supergravity is obtained, as will be described in detail in a subsequent paper.