English

Is there a physical continuum?

General Physics 2022-10-07 v2

Abstract

We are used to the fact that most if not all physical theories are based on the set of real numbers (or another associative division algebra). These all have a cardinality larger than that of the natural numbers, i.e. form a continuum. It is often asked, whether there really is a continuum in the physical world, or whether a future physical theory could work with just countable infinities. The latter could for example be compatible with a quantized space-time. In this paper we formulate a simple model of the brain and show that within the presented natural assumptions, the continuum has to exist for at least some physical quantities.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2109.03052,
  title  = {Is there a physical continuum?},
  author = {Mate Csanad},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2109.03052},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

5 pages, 1 figure; updated based on reviews in September 2021

R2 v1 2026-06-24T05:45:14.631Z