English

What if Time Really Exists?

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2008-11-25 v1 High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

Despite the obvious utility of the concept, it has often been argued that time does not exist. I take the opposite perspective: let's imagine that time does exist, and the universe is described by a quantum state obeying ordinary time-dependent quantum mechanics. Reconciling this simple picture with the known facts about our universe turns out to be a non-trivial task, but by taking it seriously we can infer deep facts about the fundamental nature of reality. The arrow of time finds a plausible explanation in a "Heraclitean universe," described by a quantum state eternally evolving in an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0811.3772,
  title  = {What if Time Really Exists?},
  author = {Sean M. Carroll},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0811.3772},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

Submission to the Foundational Questions Institute Essay Competition on "The Nature of Time."

R2 v1 2026-06-21T11:44:29.866Z