Finiteness of piecewise flat quantum gravity with matter

Abstract

We review the approach to quantum gravity which is based on the assumption that the short-distance structure of the spacetime is given by a piecewise flat manifold corresponding to a triangulation of a smooth manifold. We then describe the coupling of the Standard Model to this quantum gravity theory and show that the corresponding path integral is finite when the negative power of the product of the edge lengths squared in the path-integral measure is chossen to be grater than 52,5. The implications of this result are discussed, which include a relationship between the effective action and a wavefunction of the universe, the existence of the non-perturbative effective action, the correct value of the cosmological constant and the natural appearence of the Starobinsky inflation.