Causal Dynamical Triangulations without preferred foliation

We introduce a generalized version of the Causal Dynamical Triangulations (CDT) formulation of quantum gravity, in which the regularized, triangulated path integral histories maintain their causal properties, but do not have a preferred proper-time foliation. An extensive numerical study of the associated nonperturbative path integral in 2+1 dimensions shows that it can nevertheless reproduce the emergence of an extended de Sitter universe on large scales, a key feature of CDT quantum gravity. This suggests that the preferred foliation normally used in CDT is not a crucial (albeit convenient) part of its background structure.