Weyl's principle, cosmic time and quantum fundamentalism
Abstract
We examine the necessary physical underpinnings for setting up the cosmological standard model with a global cosmic time parameter. In particular, we discuss the role of Weyl's principle which asserts that cosmic matter moves according to certain regularity requirements. After a brief historical introduction to Weyl's principle we argue that although the principle is often not explicitly mentioned in modern standard texts on cosmology, it is implicitly assumed and is, in fact, necessary for a physically well-defined notion of cosmic time. We finally point out that Weyl's principle might be in conflict with the wide-spread idea that the universe at some very early stage can be described exclusively in terms of quantum theory.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1006.5848,
title = {Weyl's principle, cosmic time and quantum fundamentalism},
author = {Svend E. Rugh and Henrik Zinkernagel},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1006.5848},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
To appear in the section on "Physical and philosophical perspectives on probability and time" in S. Hartmann et al. (eds.) "Explanation, Prediction and Confirmation", Springer's The Philosophy of Science in a European Perspective book series