English

Can the universe be described by a wavefunction?

High Energy Physics - Theory 2018-12-19 v1 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

Suppose we assume that in gently curved spacetime (a) causality is not violated to leading order (b) the Birkoff theorem holds to leading order and (c) CPT invariance holds. Then we argue that the `mostly empty' universe we observe around us cannot be described by an exact wavefunction Ψ\Psi. Rather, the weakly coupled particles we see are approximate quasiparticles arising as excitations of a `fuzz'. The `fuzz' {\it does} have an exact wavefunction Ψfuzz\Psi_{fuzz}, but this exact wavefunction does not directly describe local particles. The argument proceeds by relating the cosmological setting to the black hole information paradox, and then using the small corrections theorem to show the impossibility of an exact wavefunction describing the visible universe.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1805.09852,
  title  = {Can the universe be described by a wavefunction?},
  author = {Samir D. Mathur},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1805.09852},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

8 pages, 6 figures, Essay awarded an honorable mention in the Gravity Research Foundation 2018 Awards for Essays on Gravitation

R2 v1 2026-06-23T02:07:38.518Z