Related papers: Boltzmann Brains--I'd Rather See Than Be One
Does quantum theory apply at all scales, including that of observers? New light on this fundamental question has recently been shed through a resurgence of interest in the long-standing Wigner's friend paradox. This is a thought experiment…
The previously proposed modification of the standard (flat) inflationary $\Lambda CDM$ model in which the inflaton field(s) and ``dark energy" are replaced by the vacum in expanding Friedmann-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walker Universe is studied.…
A goal of most interpretations of quantum mechanics is to avoid the apparent intrusion of the observer into the measurement process. Such intrusion is usually seen to arise because observation somehow selects a single actuality from among…
Generalizing to relativistic exponential scaling and using the theory of noise from quantum fluctuations, it has been shown that one vacuum (Rindler, Hartle-Hawking, or Gibbons-Hawking for the cases of the uniformly accelerated detector,…
It is hypothesised, following Conrad et al. (1988) (http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bdj10/papers/urbino.html) that quantum physics is not the ultimate theory of nature, but merely a theoretical account of the phenomena manifested in nature…
The goal of this article is to review developments regarding the use of ultra-cold atoms as quantum simulators. Special emphasis is placed on relativistic quantum phenomena, which are presumably most interesting for the audience of this…
The Boltzmann equation is the traditional framework in which one extends the time-dependent mean field classical description of a many-body system to include the effect of particle-particle collisions in an approximate manner. A…
I. The arena of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory is the abstract, unobserved and unobservable, M-dimensional formal Hilbert space [not equal to] spacetime. II. The arena of observations and, more generally, of all events (i.e.…
Quantum theory is applicable, in principle, to both the microscopic and macroscopic realms. It is therefore worthwhile to investigate whether it is possible to evolve a quantum-compatible view of the properties and states of macroscopic…
We start with a discussion of the use of mathematics to model the real world then justify the role of Hilbert space formalism for such modelling in the general context of quantum logic. Following this, the incompleteness of the…
A positive cosmological constant $\Lambda >0$ sets an upper limit for the area of marginally future-trapped surfaces enclosing a black hole (BH). Does this mean that the mass of the BH cannot increase beyond the corresponding limit? I…
In semiclassical gravity, the vacuum expectation value ${\langle\hat{N}\rangle}$ of the particle number operator for a quantum field gives rise to the perception of thermal radiation in the vicinity of a black hole. This Hawking effect has…
If conscious observers are to be included in the quantum mechanical universe, we need to find the rules that engage observers with quantum mechanical systems. The author has proposed five rules that are discovered by insisting on empirical…
We discuss theories in which the standard-model particles are localized on a brane embedded in space-time with large compact extra dimensions, whereas gravity propagates in the bulk. In addition to the ground state corresponding to a…
However, the observations encompassed by classical physics excludes the observer from the physical reality, yet the deep-down understandung of nature --{\it the quantum theory}-- can not avoid the intrusion of observer into the measurement…
We report the existence of an Unruh like effect, for physical observers (cosmological and comoving observers) in the radiation dominated early universe, which is possible due to the discovery of a new vacuum state (referred here as the…
In quantum cosmology the closed universe can spontaneously nucleate out of the state with no classical space and time. For the universe filled with a vacuum of constant energy density the semiclassical tunneling nucleation probability can…
In general, the Gibbons-Hawking temperature based on the Euclidean functional approach shows that de Sitter space in the Bunch-Davies vacuum is globally thermal. In the exactly soluble semiclassical Jackiw-Teitelboim model, we investigate…
A coordinate system is constructed for a general accelerating observer in 1+1 dimensions, and is used to determine the particle density of the massless Dirac vacuum for that observer. Equations are obtained for the spatial distribution and…
We define the local acceleration and jerk of a relativistic brane in an ambient spacetime, and construct from them a dimensionless parameter lambda that must be small for an interpretation of brane acceleration as local Unruh temperature.…