Gauge gravity and discrete quantum models

Abstract: The gauge gravity action for general relativity in any dimension using a connection for the Euclidean or Poincar\'e group and a symmetry-breaking scalar field is written using a particularly simple matrix technique. A discrete version of the gauge gravity action for variables on a triangulated 3-manifold is given and it is shown how, for a certain class of triangulations of the three-sphere, the discrete quantum model this defines is equivalent to the Ponzano-Regge model of quantum gravity.