English

On the origin of the difference between time and space

High Energy Physics - Theory 2013-05-29 v1

Abstract

We suggest that the difference between time and space is due to spontaneous symmetry breaking. In a theory with spinors the signature of the metric is related to the signature of the Lorentz-group. We discuss a higher symmetry that contains pseudo-orthogonal groups with arbitrary signature as subgroups. The fundamental asymmetry between time and space arises then as a property of the ground state rather than being put into the formulation of the theory a priori. We show how the complex structure of quantum field theory as well as gravitational field equations arise from spinor gravity - a fundamental spinor theory without a metric.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/0405223,
  title  = {On the origin of the difference between time and space},
  author = {C. Wetterich},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/0405223},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

4 pages

R2 v1 2026-07-22T15:23:37.862Z