Some properties of generalized connections in quantum gravity

Abstract

The quantum completion of the space of connections in a manifold can be seen as the set of all morphisms from the groupoid of the edges of the manifold to the (compact) gauge group. This algebraic construction generalizes the analogous description of the gauge-invariant quantum configuration space of Ashtekar and Isham. We present a description of the groupoid approach which brings the gauge-invariant degrees of freedom to the foreground, thus making the action of the gauge group more transparent.