Collisions in piecewise flat gravity in 3+1 dimensions

Maarten van de Meent (1)

1 Institute for Theoretical Physics [Utrecht]

We consider the (3+1)-dimensional locally finite gravity model proposed by 't Hooft [ 1 ]. In particular we revisit the problem of resolving collisions of string defects. We provide a new geometric description of the configurations of strings using piecewise flat manifolds, and use it to resolve a more general class of collisions. We argue that beyond certain bounds for the deficiency/surplus angles no resolutions may be found that satisfy the imposed causality conditions.

Mots clés: Physical Sciences

Maarten van de Meent. Collisions in piecewise flat gravity in 3+1 dimensions. Classical and Quantum Gravity, 2010, 27 (14), pp.145003. ⟨10.1088/0264-9381/27/14/145003⟩. ⟨hal-00610060⟩