On loop states in quantum gravity and supergravity

Abstract

The Wilson loop functionals in terms of Ashtekar's variables were the first (formal) solutions to the quantized hamiltonian constraint of canonical gravity. Here it is shown that the same functionals also solve the supergravity constraints and some evidence is presented that they are artificially generated by multiplying the constraints by the metric determinant, which has become a widely accepted procedure. Using the same method in 2+1 dimensional gravity and supergravity leads to wrong results, e.g.~2+1 gravity is no longer a purely topological theory. As another feature of the densitized constraints it turns out that the classical theory desribed by them is not invariant under space time diffeomorphisms.