Semiclassical Analysis of Spinfoam Model with a Small Barbero-Immirzi Parameter

Abstract

We study the semiclassical behavior of Lorentzian Engle-Pereira-Rovelli-Livine (EPRL) spinfoam model, by taking into account of the sum over spins in the large spin regime. The large spin parameter λand small Barbero-Immirzi parameter γare treated as two independent parameters for the asymptotic expansion of spinfoam state-sum (such an idea was firstly pointed out in arXiv:1105.0216). Interestingly, there are two different spin regimes: 1<<γ^{-1}<<λ<<γ^{-2} and λ>γ^{-2}. The model in two spin regimes has dramatically different number of effective degrees of freedom. In 1<<γ^{-1}<<λ<<γ^{-2}, the model produces in the leading order a functional integration of Regge action, which gives the discrete Einstein equation for the leading contribution. There is no restriction of Lorentzian deficit angle in this regime. In the other regime λ>γ^{-2}, only small deficit angle is allowed |Θ_f|<<γ^{-1}λ^{1/2}$ mod 4πZ. When spins go even larger, only zero deficit angle mod 4πZ is allowed asymptotically. In the transition of the two regimes, only the configurations with small deficit angle can contribute, which means one need a large triangulation in order to have oscillatory behavior of the spinfoam amplitude.

21 pages, 2 figures