Group field theory for quantum gravity minimally coupled to a scalar field

Abstract

We construct a group field theory model for quantum gravity minimally coupled to relativistic scalar fields, defining as well a corresponding discrete gravity path integral (and, implicitly, a coupled spin foam model) in its Feynman expansion. We also analyze a number of variations of the same model, the corresponding discrete gravity path integrals, its generalization to the coupling of multiple scalar fields and discuss its possible applications to the extraction of effective cosmological dynamics from the full quantum gravity formalism, in the context of group field theory condensate cosmology.