A discrete history of the Lorentzian path integral

Abstract

In these lecture notes, I describe the motivation behind a recent formulation of a non-perturbative gravitational path integral for Lorentzian (instead of the usual Euclidean) space-times, and give a pedagogical introduction to its main features. At the regularized, discrete level this approach solves the problems of (i) having a welldefined Wick rotation, (ii) possessing a coordinate-invariant cutoff, and (iii) leading to convergent sums over geometries. Although little is known as yet about the existence and nature of an underlying continuum theory of quantum gravity in four dimensions, there are already a number of beautiful results in d = 2 and d = 3 where continuum limits have been found. They include an explicit example of the inequivalence of the Euclidean and Lorentzian path integrals, a non-perturbative mechanism for the cancellation of the conformal factor, and the discovery that causality can act as an effective regulator of quantum geometry.