We formulate a non-perturbative lattice model of two-dimensional Lorentzian quantum gravity by performing the path integral over geometries with a causal structure. The model can be solved exactly at the discretized level. Its continuum limit coincides with the theory obtained by quantizing 2d continuum gravity in proper-time gauge, but it disagrees with 2d gravity defined via matrix models or Liouville theory. By allowing topology change of the compact spatial slices (i.e. baby universe creation), one obtains agreement with the matrix models and Liouville theory.

We measure the spectral dimension of universes emerging from nonperturbative quantum gravity, defined through state sums of causal triangulated geometries. While four dimensional on large scales, the quantum universe appears two dimensional at short distances. We conclude that quantum gravity may be "self-renormalizing" at the Planck scale, by virtue of a mechanism of dynamical dimensional reduction.

We provide detailed evidence for the claim that nonperturbative quantum gravity, defined through state sums of causal triangulated geometries, possesses a large-scale limit in which the dimension of spacetime is four and the dynamics of the volume of the universe behaves semiclassically. This is a first step in reconstructing the universe from a dynamical principle at the Planck scale, and at the same time provides a nontrivial consistency check of the method of causal dynamical triangulations. A closer look at the quantum geometry reveals a number of highly nonclassical aspects, including a dynamical reduction of spacetime to two dimensions on short scales and a fractal structure of slices of constant time.Comment: 52 pages, 20 postscript figures, added reference

Asymptotic safety describes a scenario in which general relativity can be quantized as a conventional field theory, despite being nonrenormalizable when expanding it around a fixed background geometry. It is formulated in the framework of the Wilsonian renormalization group and relies crucially on the existence of an ultraviolet fixed point, for which evidence has been found using renormalization group equations in the continuum."Causal Dynamical Triangulations" (CDT) is a concrete research program to obtain a nonperturbative quantum field theory of gravity via a lattice regularization, and represented as a sum over spacetime histories. In the Wilsonian spirit one can use this formulation to try to locate fixed points of the lattice theory and thereby provide independent, nonperturbative evidence for the existence of a UV fixed point.We describe the formalism of CDT, its phase diagram, possible fixed points and the "quantum geometries" which emerge in the different phases. We also argue that the formalism may be able to describe a more general class of Hořava-Lifshitz gravitational models.

Fruitful ideas on how to quantize gravity are few and far between. In this paper, we give a complete description of a recently introduced non-perturbative gravitational path integral whose continuum limit has already been investigated extensively in d < 4, with promising results. It is based on a simplicial regularization of Lorentzian space-times and, most importantly, possesses a well-defined, non-perturbative Wick rotation. We present a detailed analysis of the geometric and mathematical properties of the discretized model in d = 3, 4. This includes a derivation of Lorentzian simplicial manifold constraints, the gravitational actions and their Wick rotation. We define a transfer matrix for the system and show that it leads to a well-defined self-adjoint Hamiltonian. In view of numerical simulations, we also suggest sets of Lorentzian Monte Carlo moves. We demonstrate that certain pathological phases found previously in Euclidean models of dynamical triangulations cannot be realized in the Lorentzian case.

Causal Dynamical Triangulations in four dimensions provide a background-independent definition of the sum over geometries in nonperturbative quantum gravity, with a positive cosmological constant. We present evidence that a macroscopic four-dimensional world emerges from this theory dynamically.

We consider a discrete model of Euclidean quantum gravity in three dimensions based on a summation over random simplicial manifolds. We derive some elementary properties of the model and discuss possible “matrix” models for 3-D gravity.

We propose an improved iterative scheme for calculating higher genus contributions to the multi-loop (or multi-point) correlators and the partition function of the hermitian one matrix model. We present explicit results up to genus two. We develop a version which gives directly the result in the double scaling limit and present explicit results up to genus four. Using the latter version we prove that the hermitian and the complex matrix model are equivalent in the double scaling limit and that in this limit they are both equivalent to the Kontsevich model. We discuss how our results away from the double scaling limit are related to the structure of moduli space.