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How to Wick rotate generic curved spacetime

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arxiv 1702.05572 v2 pith:4OSEE76N submitted 2017-02-18 gr-qc hep-th

classification gr-qchep-th
keywords wickrotationgravityprocedurecomplexdeformationquantumspacetime
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It is an article of folklore that the collection of ideas identified as Euclidean quantum gravity may be derived from ordinary Lorentzian signature gravity by the procedure of Wick rotation. This note will attempt to shed some light on this relatively ill-understood procedure. I argue that it proves inappropriate and unhelpful to regard Wick rotation in terms of a complex deformation of the time coordinate. Rather, Wick rotation can more usefully be viewed as a complex deformation of the spacetime metric. This simple reformulation of the Wick rotation procedure, while it leaves flat space physics unaffected, has profound implications for quantum gravity.

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Cited by 3 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

  1. Inflation from Covariant Signature Change: A Geometric Mechanism

    gr-qc 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 5.0 of 10

    A covariant signature-change layer between a Euclidean cap and a Lorentzian universe acts as a geometric, inflaton-free fluid that accelerates expansion while the interpolator slope exceeds a curvature-dependent threshold.

  2. Wick-connected theories and Lorentz violation

    hep-th 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 5.0 of 10

    Without Lorentz invariance, double Wick rotations connect inequivalent field theories in flat spacetime, with criteria for when propagating modes, unitarity, and renormalizability fail to translate.

  3. Spectral Noncommutative Geometry, Standard Model and all that

    hep-th 2019-06 unverdicted novelty 2.0 of 10

    Review of spectral noncommutative geometry applied to the Standard Model, including bosonic and fermionic actions, Euclidean vs Lorentz issues, and going beyond the SM.

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