Lecture abstract

Time:   23. September 2011
Place:   Institute of Physics
Title:   Poincare 2-group and new action for general relativity
Abstract:
We shall introduce the concept of a 2-group, specifically the Poincare 2-group. Then we shall construct the topological BFCG action and demonstrate how it can be constrained to give general relativity. A short analysis of the equations of motion will be given, as well as the extension of the formalism to include matter fields. Finally, we shall briefly discuss the procedure of spinfoam quantization of the model.