Causal set theory offers a simple and elegant picture of discrete physics. But the vast majority of causal sets look nothing at all like continuum spacetimes, and must be excluded in some way to obtain a realistic theory. I describe recent results showing that almost all non-manifoldlike causal sets are, in fact, very strongly suppressed in the gravitational path integral. This does not quite demonstrate the emergence of a continuum—we do not yet understand the remaining unsuppressed causal sets well enough—but it is a significant step in that direction.

中文翻译：

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因果集和新兴的连续体

因果集合论提供了一幅简单而优雅的离散物理学图景。但绝大多数因果集看起来一点也不像连续时空，必须以某种方式排除以获得现实的理论。我描述了最近的结果，表明几乎所有非流形因果集实际上都在引力路径积分中受到非常强烈的抑制。这并不能完全证明连续体的出现——我们还没有充分理解剩余的未抑制因果组——但这是朝这个方向迈出的重要一步。