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arxiv: gr-qc/0101042 · v1 · submitted 2001-01-11 · 🌀 gr-qc

Spin and statistics in quantum gravity

classification 🌀 gr-qc
keywords geonsspinstatisticstopologicalcorrelationgravityspin-statisticsexample
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We present a review of the spin and statistics of topological geons, particles in 3+1 quantum gravity. They can have half-odd-integral spin and fermionic statistics and since the underlying gravitational field is tensorial and bosonic, this is an example of ``emergent'' non-trivial spin and statistics as displayed by familiar non-gravitating objects such as skyrmions. We give the topological background and show that in a ``canonical'' quantization of gravity there is no spin-statistics correlation for topological geons. Allowing the topology of space to change, for example in a sum-over-histories approach, raises the possibility that a spin-statistics correlation can be recovered for geons. We review a conjectured set of rules powerful enough to give such a spin-statistics correlation for all topological geons. These would appear to rule out the possibility of parastatistics and may rule out spinorial and fermionic geons altogether.

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