What are spin networks and how do they give rise to space and matter?

In summary, the conversation discusses the topic of loop quantum gravity (LQG) and its relation to the concept of spin networks. The article mentioned explores the idea of using spin networks to give rise to space and matter, rather than starting with preexisting notions of space. The discussion also touches on the idea of a unified theory of physics and mathematics, and the potential for the universe to be purely mathematical in nature. Further discussion is had on the concept of background independence in LQG and the challenges of incorporating quantum mechanics into the theory.
  • #1
jby
I don't know if I've come to the right place. I've posted this in the theoretical physics forum and yet to get a reply...

I recently read this article http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?ar...F71809EC588EEDF

and came across this thing called spin network. Anyone with further explanation on this?

There is also this paragraph in this article on the first page:

Markopoulou Kalamara approached LQG's extraneous space problem by asking, Why not start with Penrose's spin networks (which are not embedded in any preexisting space), mix in some of the results of LQG, and see what comes out? The result was networks that do not live in space and are not made of matter. Rather their very architecture gives rise to space and matter. In this picture, there are no things, only geometric relationships. Space ceases to be a place where objects such as particles bump and jitter and instead becomes a kaleidoscope of ever changing patterns and processes.

Giving rise to space and matter? Any explanations?
 
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  • #2
You can get the article

by putting "spin networks" in the search function on the sciam site. Her approach makes a lot of sense. Why should space and matter be brought into a theory separately? They should both come from the same precepts.

I've long thought that in some deep sense the world is made of mathematical things, and that Physics and Mathematics will one day be completely merged. It may be nothing more than the sum of all logicaly permitted mathematical relationships. Why should it be made of "physical things" that have to be described mathematicaly? That adds an unneccesary layer to the world.
 
  • #3
Correct. TOE shall explain not only matter but space and time itself. So far all objects we know are just a mathematical outcome of more fundamental entities. But, indeed - why shall space and time be exception?

It is all math. Physics is just an illusion. Universe seems to be an applied math.
 
  • #4
Originally posted by jby
I don't know if I've come to the right place. I've posted this in the theoretical physics forum and yet to get a reply...

I downloaded a couple of Fotini Markopolou papers from arXiv
a while back, so I know journal-type articles by her are readily
available if you want to see what she actually is talking about.
One paper was "Holography in a quantum spacetime"
One paper was "Quantum causal histories".

As far as I can tell, the title of your thread---"Loop Quantum Gravity"---is one thing and Fotini's thought is something else.
She makes creative use of ideas which have arisen in LQG without furthering the development of LQG as such. Her work is
intriguing but I have mixed feelings about it.

Are you interested in finding out about LQG?
If not, and just want to follow thru what Fotini talks about,
why not get her papers---like Quantum Causal Histories
arXiv:hep-th/9904009
 
  • #5
Originally posted by Alexander
Correct. TOE shall explain not only matter but space and time itself. So far all objects we know are just a mathematical outcome of more fundamental entities. But, indeed - why shall space and time be exception?

It is all math. Physics is just an illusion. Universe seems to be an applied math.

Specifically, geometry.
 
  • #6
yes please marcus or anyone else, can you elaborate more on this LQG stuff? I've read before on this theory but those terminologies make me lose interest in it too fast for me to grasp that theory.
 
  • #7
I've long thought that in some deep sense the world is made of mathematical things, and that Physics and Mathematics will one day be completely merged. It may be nothing more than the sum of all logicaly permitted mathematical relationships. Why should it be made of "physical things" that have to be described mathematicaly? That adds an unneccesary layer to the world.

Yes, I do agree with this. However, my idea is that since mathematics stemmed from orderness, it is suffice to say that our world is not chaotic. The universe doesn't understand maths but maths is able to explain the universe because it is consistent and has orderliness imprinted.
Nevertheless, there's this thing called Godel's Incompleteness Theorem that shows "loopholes"...
 
  • #8
Originally posted by jby
yes please marcus or anyone else, can you elaborate more on this LQG stuff? I've read before on this theory but those terminologies make me lose interest in it too fast for me to grasp that theory.

I can only elaborate in steps of very small ideas over the course of several days.

Our own history includes the gradual invention of mathematical descriptions of space and time which are less and less rigid and absolute.

Gauss and Riemann helped us to free ourselves from a rigid Euclidean framework (within which Newton happily did great work, so I must no knock Euclidean space!) and to develope
the "smooth manifold with metric" that GR lives on.

Gauss actually suspected that the angles of a triangle, if it was big enough, might show up as not exactly 180 degrees and he attempted to measure the angles of a very large triangle.

This is as quixotic as Galileo and his friend trying to measure the speed of lights by flashing lanterns to each other in the hills around florence.

We are now in the process of getting rid of the fixed metric and letting the metric be an uncertain quantum dynamic thing, and with it the geometry.

This is the quest for "Background Independence" that characterizse and drives LQG. To just have a smooth manifold WITHOUT an idea of distance being given and let the metric
be a quantum mechanical state-----in essence to have a whole hilbert space of metrics the way one has a hilbert space of wavefunctions or quantum states of an electron or whatnot.

The all important thing, at this point in history, is to be patient with the mathematicians because all really new mathematical inventions are
ungainly and horrifyingly unfamiliar and even boring.

I can sketch for you how the effort is going in LQG but in some sense the actual mechanical details and methods are less important than simply the fact that we are trying to peel off one more layer.

Gen Rel has been done on a manifold-with-metric

(this itself is a generalization of Euclidean space and time coordinates)

Now the time has come to erase the metric and venture into unknown waters again.

this is almost an instinctive drive in the history of mathematics
(now in this instance it is the drive for "background independence")

Background independence distinguishes LQG from stringy approaches or "perturbative" that start with a fixed metric and use quantum methods to futz around with it and add on undetermined fuzz. These approaches commit themselves to
an absolute choice of metric and then "perturb" it with an add-on
quantum layer. Background independent approaches strip off the metric completely and let it reappear as a purely quantum thing.

What they have contrived to enable them to do this is quite remarkable and I will probably try to give an overview if nothing else intervenes. this is where the space of "connections" on the manifold (which do parallel transport of vectors) come in and also the "loops" and networks that are used to explore and express the connections and thru them the alternative geometries of the manifold. It sounds like a terrifying bedlam but it is only humans doing what they always do.
 
  • #9
Originally posted by jby
Yes, I do agree with this. However, my idea is that since mathematics stemmed from orderness, it is suffice to say that our world is not chaotic.


Not nesessary. Math allows both for chaotic solutions (exponential solutions are coomon in math, and they result in catastrophic amplification of small initial changes with time) and for uncertainty (waves are perfect example of a mathematical solution with mathematically entangled properties which results in mutual uncertainty of those entangled quantities).

The universe doesn't understand maths but maths is able to explain the universe because it is consistent and has orderliness imprinted.
Nevertheless, there's this thing called Godel's Incompleteness Theorem that shows "loopholes"...

Universe does not need to "understand" math. It simply follows it because math is just a logic existing things shall obey. Just by definition of math.

Incompleteness theorem is not a "loophole" as sometimes laymans feel about it. It simply says that math can create correct structures which can't be proven ONLY from initial postulates. I would not call that "incompleteness" rather than "redunance" of math.
 
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  • #10
this is where the space of "connections" on the manifold (which do parallel transport of vectors) come in and also the "loops" and networks that are used to explore and express the connections and thru them the alternative geometries of the manifold.

I don't quite understand this phrase. Can you elaborate?

And one more thing... is quantum physics background independence like GR?
 
  • #11
Rovelli has a fine non-mathematical discussion in his survey of quantum gravity in the web journal LivingReviews

http://www.livingreviews.org/Articles/Volume1/1998-1rovelli/index.html

Have a look at:
3 History of Loop Quantum Gravity, Main Steps

The first item is about "connections" and the reformulation of GR in terms of connections that was achieved in 1986.

Loop Quantum gravity seems to have taken off at that point, or begun its journey.

The connection on a smooth manifold-with-metric is a machine for doing parallel transport of vectors from one point to another along a curve----that is one way of saying what it does, it is much more generally useful than that.

Imagine a tangent vector at a point on the Earth's equator being "parallel transported" up to the north pole. Which way would it point then? This is simple stuff and very intuitive. But mathematicians always need to be very sure what they mean. So they define a definite machine for doing this very intuitive thing.


Then by a wonderful surprise it turns out that if you have the connection that derived from a metric and know how vectors are transported in every possible case then if you ever forget the metric you can RECOVER it from watching the transport of vectors.
The connection machine contains the same info in a different form. You can recover the curvature and the distance-idea at least up to a scale adjustment, just from the "connection"

Maybe that is not so surprising after all.

Anyway in 1986 Ashtekhar said let's do GR by studying the connection instead of studying the metric.

Rovelli's review of the history of LQG will make it clearer why that was an important step.


Originally posted by jby

And one more thing... is quantum physics background independence like GR?

No, and this does not seem to be a drawback as long as QM just deals with small-scale things on uncurved unexpanding space.

It seems generally satisfactory to have QM living on Minkowski space which is the ordinary uncurved undynamic 4D space of special relativity.

The simple answer is No. QM is not background independent. It is not done on a general smooth manifold. It is normally done on very ordinary Euclidean 3D or Minkowsky 4D space. But one must quickly say that there is no harm in this! For such matters as QM deals with, these coordinates are fine and work great!

The problem is that to quantize the largescale dynamic geometry of spacetime one can't begin by laying out a rigid Minkowski 4D space----that space does not even expand! Nothing interesting is going on there----largescale geometry-wise. It prejudices things by making an early committment to a boring and unrealistic largescale geometry. At least some people have adopted that position and have insisted on making a clean start on a manifold with no prior choice of metric.

I think Rovelli discusses the need for background independence when one works on largescale geometry (as opposed to microscopic quantum matters). If I find a section reference in his LivingReviews article I will edit it in here.

Yes this section of the article:
2.2 What is the problem? The view of a relativist
talks about background independence in a non-mathematical way.
I may also find other discussions elsewhere and edit them in as references---unless you find this an adequate reply.
 
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  • #12
Grrr this is frustrating
I can't go to the site you're referring to not even www.livingreviews.org website.
 
  • #13
Why? It's working ok for me.
 
  • #14
damn I think my comp is playing tricks on me. I'll have to check the settings. thx.
 

What are spin networks?

Spin networks are a mathematical framework used in theoretical physics to describe the structure of space and matter. They are based on the concept of spin, which is a fundamental property of subatomic particles.

How do spin networks give rise to space and matter?

Spin networks provide a way to mathematically describe the interactions between particles and their movement in space. These interactions give rise to the fundamental properties of matter, such as mass and charge, as well as the structure of space itself.

What are the basic components of a spin network?

The basic components of a spin network are nodes and links. Nodes represent particles, while links represent the interactions between them. The orientation and strength of these links are determined by the spin of the particles involved.

How are spin networks related to quantum mechanics?

Spin networks are closely related to the principles of quantum mechanics, which govern the behavior of particles on a subatomic level. The use of spin networks allows for a more unified approach to understanding the fundamental laws of the universe.

Are spin networks used in any practical applications?

Spin networks are primarily used in theoretical physics and are still being studied and developed. However, they have potential applications in fields such as quantum computing and the development of new materials with unique properties.

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