Area spectrum in Lorentz covariant loop gravity

Abstract

We use the manifestly Lorentz covariant canonical formalism to evaluate eigenvalues of the area operator acting on Wilson lines. To this end we modify the standard definition of the loop states to make it applicable to the present case of non-commutative connections. The area operator is diagonalized by using the usual shift ambiguity in definition of the connection. The eigenvalues are then expressed through quadratic Casimir operators. No dependence on the Immirzi parameter appears.