Speaker
Sumati Surya
Description
I will discuss the role of numerical simulations in the
causal set approach to quantum gravity. Because of the
inherent non-locality of the graphs, the limits and
complexity of simulations can far exceed that associated
with finite valency graphs. On the other hand, fairly small
graphs contain far richer geometric information than one
might imagine. The overall goal is to present some of
the broad numerical challenges faced in the causal set
approach. I will begin with examples of geometric
observables in the theory and how simulations give us
practical estimates for manifoldlikeness. I will then
discuss a class of continuum inspired dynamics which are
studied using MCMC simulations. An approach that has been
successful in 2d is to limit the full sample space of causal
sets by spacetime dimension and topology. I will then
describe some very recent work where this is extended to the
class of cylindrical 2d geometries using a "lattice gas"
model of causal sets.
