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A Note On Complex Spacetime Metrics

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arxiv 2111.06514 v2 pith:MCPCT3EP submitted 2021-11-12 hep-th gr-qc

A Note On Complex Spacetime Metrics

classification hep-th gr-qc
keywords complexpointssaddleallowedintegralmetricspathproposal
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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For various reasons, it seems necessary to include complex saddle points in the "Euclidean" path integral of General Relativity. But some sort of restriction on the allowed complex saddle points is needed to avoid various unphysical examples. In this article, a speculative proposal is made concerning a possible restriction on the allowed saddle points in the gravitational path integral. The proposal is motivated by recent work of Kontsevich and Segal on complex metrics in quantum field theory, and earlier work of Louko and Sorkin on topology change from a real time point of view.

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Cited by 31 Pith papers

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