Title: Combinatorial interpretation of the coefficients of the causal set theory d'Alembertian
| Speaker | Karen Yeats |
| Affiliation | University of Waterloo |
| Location | MC 5479 |
Abstract: Causal set theory is an approach to quantum gravity where the underlying spacetime is a locally finite poset. This opens up many interesting combinatorial questions on posets that are either useful to the physics or that are asked by the physics but wouldn't necessarily be asked from a purer perspective. This talk is about one of the latter questions. Glaser gave a formula for the causal set theory analogue of the d'Alembertian in general dimension (growing out of previous work of Sorkin, Benincasa and Dowker, and Dowker and Glaser). The formula
contains integer coefficients. Who can resist trying to find something that they count -- not me! -- so I will tell you about such a something.
There will be a pre-seminar presenting relevant background at the beginning graduate level starting at 1pm,