standard, nonbranching CDT configurations agrees with the usual proper time label $t$. This will enable us to extract volume profiles from the numerical simulations and compare their dynamics with that of the standard formulation.

There are a number of good reasons for beginning our investigation in 2+1 dimensions, as we are doing in the present work. In standard CDT, the large-scale properties of the quantum universe generated by the nonperturbative quantum dynamics are qualitatively very similar to those in 3+1 dimensions, and are well described by a (three-dimensional) Euclidean de Sitter universe [@3dcdt; @benedettihenson]. Furthermore, as we will describe in Sec. \[sec:numsetup\], the nonfoliated CDT model requires new Monte Carlo moves, which are significantly more difficult to implement than the generalized Pachner moves used in standard CDT. Writing the simulation software for the new model becomes a very challenging task already in 2+1 dimensions. At the same time, the increased complexity of the simulation software leads to longer simulation times. It is not even clear currently whether analogous simulations in 3+1 dimensions could be performed with acceptable running times using contemporary simulation hardware.

Before embarking on our exploration of the dynamics of nonfoliated CDT, let us comment briefly on prior 