A new look at Lorentz-covariant loop quantum gravity

In this work, we study the classical and quantum properties of the unique commutative Lorentz-covariant connection for loop quantum gravity. This connection has been found after solving the second-class constraints inherited from the canonical analysis of the Holst action without the time gauge. We show that it has the property of lying in the conjugacy class of a pure su(2) connection, a result which enables one to construct the kinematical Hilbert space of the Lorentz-covariant theory in terms of the usual SU(2) spin-network states. Furthermore, we show that there is a unique Lorentz-covariant electric field, up to trivial and natural equivalence relations. The Lorentz-covariant electric field transforms under the adjoint action of the Lorentz group, and the associated Casimir operators are shown to be proportional to the area density. This gives a very interesting algebraic interpretation of the area. Finally, we show that the action of the surface operator on the Lorentz-covariant holonomies reproduces exactly the usual discrete SU( 2) spectrum of time-gauge loop quantum gravity. In other words, the use of the time gauge does not introduce anomalies in the quantum theory.