GRAVITONS AS EMBROIDERY ON THE WEAVE

Abstract

We investigate the physical interpretation of the loop states that appear in the loop representation of quantum gravity. By utilizing the “weave” state, which has been recently introduced as a quantum description of the microstructure of flat space, we analyze the relation between loop states and graviton states. This relation determines a linear map M from the state-space of the nonperturbative theory (loop space) into the state-space of the linearized theory (Fock space). We present an explicit form of this map, and a preliminary investigation of its properties. The existence of such a map indicates that the full nonperturbative quantum theory includes a sector that describes the same physics as (the low energy regimes of) the linearized theory, namely gravitons on flat space.