Statistical Fluctuations in the Causal Set-Continuum CorrespondenceConfirmed

by Yasaman Kouchekzadeh Yazdi (Dublin Institute For Advanced Studies)

Friday Feb 21, 2025, 11:00 a.m. → 12:30 p.m. America/Toronto

PI/4-405 - Bob Room (Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics)

Causal set theory is an approach to quantum gravity that proposes that

spacetime is fundamentally discrete and the causal relations among the

discrete elements play a prominent role in the physics. Progress has

been made in recognizing and understanding how some continuumlike

features can emerge from causal sets at macroscopic scales, i.e., when

the number of elements is large. An important result in this context is

that a causal set is well approximated by a continuum spacetime if there

is a number-volume correspondence between the causal set and spacetime.

This occurs when the number of elements within an arbitrary spacetime

region is proportional to its volume. Such a correspondence is known to

be best achieved when the number of causal set elements is randomly

distributed according to the Poisson distribution. I will discuss the

Poisson distribution and the statistical fluctuations it induces in the

causal set-continuum correspondence, highlighting why it is important

and interesting. I will also discuss new tools and techniques that

facilitate such analyses.