Geodesic distances in Liouville quantum gravity

In order to study the quantum geometry of random surfaces in Liouville gravity, we propose a definition of geodesic distance associated to a Gaussian free field on a regular lattice. This geodesic distance is used to numerically determine the Hausdorff dimension associated to shortest cycles of 2d q...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: J. Ambjørn, T.G. Budd
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2014-12-01
Series:Nuclear Physics B
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0550321314003356
Description
Summary:In order to study the quantum geometry of random surfaces in Liouville gravity, we propose a definition of geodesic distance associated to a Gaussian free field on a regular lattice. This geodesic distance is used to numerically determine the Hausdorff dimension associated to shortest cycles of 2d quantum gravity on the torus coupled to conformal matter fields, showing agreement with a conjectured formula by Y. Watabiki. Finally, the numerical tools are put to test by quantitatively comparing the distribution of lengths of shortest cycles to the corresponding distribution in large random triangulations.
ISSN:0550-3213
1873-1562