Related papers: The Production of Time
We suggest commutation relations for a quantum measure. In one version of these relations, the right-hand side takes account of the presence of curvature of space; in the simplest case, this yields the action of general relativity. We…
One of the major issues confronting theoretical physics is finding a quantum theory of gravity and a resolution to the cosmological constant problem. It is believed that a true quantum theory of gravity will lead to a solution to the this…
Quantum measurement and quantum operation theory is developed here by taking the relational properties among quantum systems, instead of the independent properties of a quantum system, as the most fundamental elements. By studying how the…
Hardy's theorem states that the hidden variables of any realistic theory of quantum measurement, whose predictions agree with ordinary quantum theory, must have a preferred Lorentz frame. This presents the conflict between special…
The problem of time in quantum gravity occurs because `time' is taken to have a different meaning in each of general relativity and ordinary quantum theory. This incompatibility creates serious problems with trying to replace these two…
Time is a parameter playing a central role in our most fundamental modeling of natural laws. Relativity theory shows that the comparison of times measured by different clocks depends on their relative motions and on the strength of the…
Quantum gravity places entirely new challenges on the formulation of a consistent theory as well as on an extraction of potentially observable effects. Quantum corrections due to the gravitational field are commonly expected to be tiny…
In this mainly pedagogical article, we discuss under what circumstances measurements play a special role in quantum processes. In particular we discuss the following facts which appear to be a common area of confusion: i) from a fundamental…
A new, realist interpretation of the quantum measurement processes is given. In this scenario a quantum measurement is a non-equilibrium phase transition in a ``resonant cavity'' formed by the entire physical universe including all its…
The problem of measurement in quantum mechanics is reanalyzed within a general, strictly probabilistic framework (without reduction postulate). Based on a novel comprehensive definition of measurement the natural emergence of objective…
The conceptual problems in quantum mechanics -- related to the collapse of the wave function, the particle-wave duality, the meaning of measurement -- arise from the need to ascribe particle character to the wave function. As will be shown,…
Textbook quantum mechanics treats time as a classical parameter, and not as a quantum observable with an associated Hermitian operator. For this reason, to make sense of usual time-energy uncertainty relations such as $\Delta {t}\Delta…
In general relativity, the picture of spacetime assigns an ideal clock to each worldline. Being ideal, gravitational effects due to these clocks are ignored and the flow of time according to one clock is not affected by the presence of…
Observed physical phenomena can be described well by quantum mechanics or general relativity. People may try to find an unified fundamental theory which mainly aims to merge gravity with quantum theory. However, difficulty in merging those…
Clocks in different heights or with different velocities run with different speeds. For global positioning systems these effects are much too large to be ignored. Nevertheless, in classical and quantum mechanics we get high accuracy using a…
Space-time is one of the most essential, yet most mysterious concepts in physics. In quantum mechanics it is common to understand time as a marker of instances of evolution and define states around all the space but at one time; while in…
For a 1+1 dimensional theory of gravity with torsion different approaches to the formulation of a quantum theory are presented. They are shown to lead to the same finite dimensional quantum system. Conceptual questions of quantum gravity…
The perspective is advanced that the time parameter in quantum mechanics corresponds to the time coordinate in a Minkowski flat spacetime local approximation to the actual dynamical curved spacetime of General Relativity, rather than to an…
The formulation of a consistent measurement theory for relativistic quantum fields has become a problem of growing foundational and practical significance. Standard non-relativistic measurement models fail to incorporate the essential…
The notions of time in the theories of Newton and Einstein are reviewed so that certain of their assumptions are clarified. These assumptions will be seen as the causes of the incompatibility between the two different ways of understanding…