Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-21-2000

Abstract

We generalize the idea of Vassiliev invariants to the spin network context, with the aim of using these invariants as a kinematical arena for a canonical quantization of gravity. This paper presents a detailed construction of these invariants (both ambient and regular isotopic) requiring a significant elaboration based on the use of Chern - Simons perturbation theory which extends the work of Kauffman, Martin and Witten to four-valent networks. We show that this space of knot invariants has the crucial property - from the point of view of the quantization of gravity - of being loop differentiable in the sense of distributions. This allows the definition of diffeomorphism and Hamiltonian constraints. We show that the invariants are annihilated by the diffeomorphism constraint. In a companion paper we elaborate on the definition of a Hamiltonian constraint, discuss the constraint algebra and show that the construction leads to a consistent theory of canonical quantum gravity.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Classical and Quantum Gravity

First Page

3211

Last Page

3237

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