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Abstract

Motivated by applications in background-independent quantum gravity, we discuss the quantization of labeled and unlabeled finite multigraphs with a maximum edge count. We provide a unified way to represent quantum multigraphs with labeled or unlabeled vertices, which enables the study of quantum multigraphs as dynamical microscopic degrees of freedom and not just as representations of relations among quantum states of particles. The quantum multigraphs represent a quantum mechanical treatment of the relations themselves and give rise to Hilbert space realizations of relations. After defining the Hilbert space, we focus on quantum simple graphs and explore the thermodynamics resulting from two simple models, a free Hamiltonian and an Ising-type Hamiltonian (with interactions among nearest-neighbor edges). We show that removing the distinction among vertices by considering unlabeled vertices gives rise to a qualitatively different thermodynamics. We find that the free theory of labeled quantum simple graphs is the Erd\H{o}s--R\'enyi--Gilbert $G(N,p)$ model of random graphs. This model has analytic free energy and hence no thermodynamic phase transition. On the other hand, the unlabeled quantum graphs give rise to proper thermodynamic phase transitions in both the free and the ferromagnetic Ising models, characterized by divergence in the specific heat and critical slowing near the critical temperature. The thermodynamic phase transition has an order parameter given as the fraction of vertices in the largest connected component. Although this is similar to the phase transition in the $G(N,p)$ model, in this case it represents the actual thermodynamic phase transition.