Cosmology in Lorentzian Regge calculus: causality violations, massless scalar field and discrete dynamics

Abstract We develop a model of spatially flat, homogeneous and isotropic cosmology in Lorentzian Regge calculus, employing four-dimensional Lorentzian frusta as building blocks. By examining the causal structure of the discrete spacetimes obtained by gluing such four-frusta in spatial and temporal direction, we find causality violations if the sub-cells connecting spatial slices are spacelike. A Wick rotation to the Euclidean theory can be defined globally by a complexification of the variables and an analytic continuation of the action. Introducing a discrete free massless scalar field, we study its equations of motion and show that it evolves monotonically. Furthermore, in a continuum limit, we obtain the equations of a homogeneous scalar field on a spatially flat Friedmann background. Vacuum solutions to the causally regular Regge equations are static and flat and show a restoration of time reparametrisation invariance. In the presence of a scalar field, the height of a frustum is a dynamical variable that has a solution if causality violations are absent and if an inequality relating geometric and matter boundary data is satisfied. Edge lengths of cubes evolve monotonically, yielding a contracting or an expanding branch of the Universe. In a small deficit angle expansion, the system can be deparametrised via the scalar field and a continuum limit of the discrete theory can be defined which we show to yield the relational Friedmann equation. These properties are obstructed if higher orders of the deficit angle are taken into account. Our results suggest that the inclusion of timelike sub-cells is necessary for a causally regular classical evolution in this symmetry restricted setting. Ultimately, this works serves as a basis for forthcoming investigations on the cosmological path integral within the framework of effective spin foams.