We investigate the relation between rank-three tensor models and the dynamical triangulation model of three-dimensional quantum gravity, and discuss the orientability of the manifold and the corresponding tensor models. We generalize the orientable tensor models to arbitrary dimensions, which include the two-dimensional Hermitian matrix model as a special case.

We construct BPS saturated regular configurations of N = 4 SU(3) supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory carrying non-parallel electric and magnetic charges. These field theory BPS states correspond to the string theory BPS states of 3-string junctions connecting three different D3-branes by regarding the N = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory as an effective field theory on parallel D3-branes.

It is an intriguing question how local time can be introduced in the emergent picture of spacetime. In this paper, this problem is discussed in the context of tensor models. To consistently incorporate local time into tensor models, a rankthree tensor model with first class constraints in Hamilton formalism is presented. In the limit of usual continuous spaces, the algebra of constraints reproduces that of general relativity in Hamilton formalism. While the momentum constraints can be realized rather easily by the symmetry of the tensor models, the form of the Hamiltonian constraints is strongly limited by the condition of the closure of the whole constraint algebra. Thus the Hamiltonian constraints have been determined on the assumption that they are local and at most cubic in canonical variables. The form of the Hamiltonian constraints has similarity with the Hamiltonian in the c < 1 string field theory, but it seems impossible to realize such a constraint algebras in the framework of vector or matrix models. Instead these models are rather useful as matter theories coupled with the tensor model. In this sense, a three-index tensor is the minimum-rank dynamical variable necessary to describe gravity in terms of tensor models.

Canonical formalism of the rank-three tensor model has recently been proposed, in which "local" time is consistently incorporated by a set of first class constraints. By brute-force analysis, this paper shows that there exist only two forms of a Hamiltonian constraint which satisfies the following assumptions: (i) A Hamiltonian constraint has one index. (ii) The kinematical symmetry is given by an orthogonal group. (iii) A consistent first class constraint algebra is formed by a Hamiltonian constraint and the generators of the kinematical symmetry. (iv) A Hamiltonian constraint is invariant under time reversal transformation. (v) A Hamiltonian constraint is an at most cubic polynomial function of canonical variables. (vi) There are no disconnected terms in a constraint algebra. The two forms are the same except for a slight difference in index contractions. The Hamiltonian constraint which was obtained in the previous paper and behaved oddly under time reversal symmetry can actually be transformed to one of them by a canonical change of variables. The two-fold uniqueness is shown up to the potential ambiguity of adding terms which vanish in the limit of pure gravitational physics. * sasakura@yukawa.kyoto-u.ac.jp * Noncommutative spaces [3,4] are the special classes of fuzzy spaces, which are described by noncommutative associative algebra of functions. Nonassociative spaces [5]-[8] are also of physical interest.

It is shown that, in the three-dimensional lattice gravity defined by Ponzano and Regge, the space of physical states is isomorphic to the space of gauge-invariant functions on the moduli space of flat SU(2) connections over a two-dimensional surface, which gives physical states in the ISO(3) Chern–Simons gauge theory. To prove this, we employ the q-analogue of this model defined by Turaev and Viro as a regularization to sum over states. A recent work by Turaev suggests that the q-analogue model itself may be related to an Euclidean gravity with a cosmological constant proportional to 1/k2, where q=e2πi/(k+2).

We investigate the dynamics of open membrane boundaries in a constant C-field background. We follow the analysis for open strings in a B-field background, and take some approximations. We find that open membrane boundaries do show noncommutativity in this case by explicit calculations. Membrane boundaries are one dimensional strings, so we face a new type of noncommutativity, that is, noncommutative strings.

We construct the string field Hamiltonian for c = 1 -6 / m ( m + 1) string theory in the temporal gauge. In order to do so, we first examine the Schwinger-Dyson equations of the matrix chain models and propose the continuum version of them. The results of boundary conformal field theory are useful in making a connection between the discrete and continuum pictures. The W constraints are derived from the continuum Schwinger-Dyson equations. We also check that these equations are consistent with other known results about noncritical string theory. The string field Hamiltonian is easily obtained from the continuum Schwinger-Dyson equations. It looks similar to the Kaku-Kikkawa Hamiltonian and may readily be generalized to c > 1 cases.

Tensor models in various forms are being studied as models of quantum gravity. Among them the canonical tensor model has a canonical pair of rank-three tensors as dynamical variables, and is a pure constraint system with first-class constraints. The Poisson algebra of the first-class constraints has structure functions, and provides an algebraically consistent way of discretizing the Dirac first-class constraint algebra for general relativity. This paper successfully formulates the Wheeler-DeWitt scheme of quantization of the canonical tensor model; the ordering of operators in the constraints is determined without ambiguity by imposing Hermiticity and covariance on the constraints, and the commutation algebra of constraints takes essentially the same from as the classical Poisson algebra, i.e. is first-class. Thus one could consistently obtain, at least locally in the configuration space, wave functions of "universe" by solving the partial differential equations representing the constraints, i.e. the Wheeler-DeWitt equations for the quantum canonical tensor model. The unique wave function for the simplest non-trivial case is exactly and globally obtained. Although this case is far from being realistic, the wave function has a few physically interesting features; it shows that locality is favored, and that there exists a locus of configurations with features of beginning of universe.