Complex critical points and curved geometries in four-dimensional Lorentzian spinfoam quantum gravity

Abstract

This paper focuses on the semiclassical behavior of the spinfoam quantum gravity in four dimensions. There has been long-standing confusion, known as the flatness problem, about whether the curved geometry exists in the semiclassical regime of the spinfoam amplitude. The confusion is resolved by the present work. By numerical computations, we explicitly find curved Regge geometries that contribute dominantly to the large-$j$ Lorentzian Engle-Pereira-Rovelli-Livine (EPRL) spinfoam amplitudes on triangulations. These curved geometries are with small deficit angles and relate to the complex critical points of the amplitude. The dominant contribution from the curved geometry to the spinfoam amplitude is proportional to ${e}^{i\mathcal{I}}$, where $\mathcal{I}$ is the Regge action of the geometry plus corrections of higher order in curvature. As a result, in the semiclassical regime, the spinfoam amplitude reduces to an integral over Regge geometries weighted by ${e}^{i\mathcal{I}}$, where $\mathcal{I}$ is the Regge action plus corrections of higher order in curvature. As a by-product, our result also provides a mechanism to relax the cosine problem in the spinfoam model. Our results provide important evidence supporting the semiclassical consistency of the spinfoam quantum gravity.