A Microscopic Liouville Arrow of Time
Abstract
We discuss the treatment of quantum-gravitational fluctuations in the space-time background as an `environment', using the formalism for open quantum-mechanical systems, which leads to a microscopic arrow of time. After reviewing briefly the open-system formalism, and the motivations for treating quantum gravity as an `environment', we present an example from general relativity and a general framework based on non-critical strings, with a Liouville field that we identify with time. We illustrate this approach with calculations in the contexts of two-dimensional models and branes. Finally, some prospects for observational tests of these ideas are mentioned.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.hep-th/9805120,
title = {A Microscopic Liouville Arrow of Time},
author = {John Ellis and N. E. Mavromatos and D. V. Nanopoulos},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/9805120},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
24 pages LATEX, two figures incorporated. Invited Review for the ``Journal of Chaos, Solitons and Fractals'', Special Issue on: ``Superstrings, M, F, S, ... theory'', eds. C. Castro and M. S. El Naschie