Relation between Regge calculus and BF theory on manifolds with defects

Abstract: In Regge calculus the space-time manifold is approximated by certain abstract simplicial complex, called a pseudo-manifold, and the metric is approximated by an assignment of a length to each 1-simplex. In this paper for each pseudomanifold we construct a smooth manifold which we call a manifold with defects. This manifold emerges from the purely combinatorial simplicial complex as a result of gluing geometric realizations of its n-simplices followed by removing the simplices of dimension n-2. The Regge geometry is encoded in a boundary data of a BF-theory on this manifold. We construct an action functional which coincides with the standard BF action for suitably regular manifolds with defects and fields. On the other hand, the action evaluated at solutions of the field equations satisfying certain boundary conditions coincides with an evaluation of the Regge action at Regge geometries defined by the boundary data. As a result we trade the degrees of freedom of Regge calculus for discrete degrees of freedom of topological BF theory.