English

3D-Space and the preferred basis cannot uniquely emerge from the quantum structure

Quantum Physics 2024-03-29 v9 Mathematical Physics math.MP History and Philosophy of Physics

Abstract

Hilbert-Space Fundamentalism (HSF) states that the only fundamental structures are the quantum state vector and the Hamiltonian, and from them everything else emerge uniquely, including the 3D-space, a preferred basis, and a preferred factorization of the Hilbert space. In this article it is shown that whenever such a structure emerges from the Hamiltonian and the state vector alone, if it is physically relevant, it is not unique. Moreover, HSF leads to strange effects like "passive" travel in time and in alternative realities, realized simply by passive transformations of the Hilbert space. The results from this article affect all theories that adhere to HSF, whether they assume branching or state vector reduction (in particular the version of Everett's Interpretation coined by Carroll and Singh "Mad-dog Everettianism"), various proposals based on decoherence, proposals that aim to describe everything by the quantum structure alone, and proposals that spacetime emerges from a purely quantum theory of gravity.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2102.08620,
  title  = {3D-Space and the preferred basis cannot uniquely emerge from the quantum structure},
  author = {Ovidiu Cristinel Stoica},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2102.08620},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

28 pages, 1 figure

R2 v1 2026-06-23T23:14:21.683Z