Quantum curved tetrahedron, quantum group intertwiner space, and coherent states

Abstract In this paper, we construct the phase space of a constantly curved tetrahedron with fixed triangle areas in terms of a pair of Darboux coordinates called the length and twist coordinates, which are in analogy to the Fenchel–Nielsen coordinates for flat connections, and their quantization. The curvature is identified to the value of the cosmological constant, either positive or negative. The physical Hilbert space is given by the <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi class="MJX-tex-calligraphic">U</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>q</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="fraktur">s</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="fraktur">u</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> intertwiner space. We show that the quantum trace of quantum monodromies, defining the quantum length operators, form a fusion algebra and describe their representation theory. We also construct the coherent states in the physical Hilbert space labeled by the length and twist coordinates. These coherent states describe quantum curved tetrahedra and peak at points of the tetrahedron phase space. This work is closely related to 3+1 dimensional loop quantum gravity with a non-vanishing cosmological constant. The coherent states constructed herein serve as good candidates for the application to the spinfoam model with a cosmological constant.