Related papers: Time functions as utilities
We study the notion of causal orders for the cases of (classical and quantum) circuits and spacetime events. We show that every circuit can be immersed into a classical spacetime, preserving the compatibility between the two causal…
Considering second variations about a given minimizer of a causal variational principle, we derive positive functionals in space-time. It is shown that the strict positivity of these functionals ensures that the minimizer is nonlinearly…
Space-time symmetries and internal quantum symmetries can be placed on equal footing in a hyperspin geometry. Four-dimensional classical space-time emerges as a result of a decoherence that disentangles the quantum and the space-time…
This paper continues the investigation of constant mean curvature (CMC) time functions in maximal globally hyperbolic spatially compact spacetimes of constant sectional curvature, which was started in math.DG/0604486. In that paper, the…
In this work we will focus on the causal character of Carter Spacetime (see B. Carter, Causal structure in space-time, Gen. Rel. Grav. 1 4 337-406, 1971). The importance of this spacetime is the following: for the causally best well behaved…
Two major apparently unrelated problems, that of the origin of time in the universe associated with quantum gravity and to the entropy in de Sitter cosmological models, are found to have their origin in a single physical phenomenon: the…
We continue our study of the global properties of the z=2 Schroedinger space-time. In particular, we provide a codimension 2 isometric embedding which naturally gives rise to the previously introduced global coordinates. Furthermore, we…
We develop relativistic causality theory in the setting of point-free topology by introducing a notion of causal coverage in ordered locales, generalising their canonical coverage relation to incorporate causal structure. This improves…
Time plays a crucial role in the performance of computing systems. The accurate modelling of logical devices, and of their physical implementations, requires an appropriate representation of time and of all properties that depend on this…
In this contribution, we study spacetimes of cosmological interest, without making any symmetry assumptions. We prove a rigid Hawking singularity theorem for positive cosmological constant, which sharpens known results. In particular, it…
This is the first of four papers prompted by a recent literature about a doctrine dubbed spacetime functionalism. This paper gives our general framework for discussing functionalism. Following Lewis, we take it as a species of reduction. We…
At first we introduce the space-time manifold and we compare some aspects of Riemannian and Lorentzian geometry such as the distance function and the relations between topology and curvature. We then define spinor structures in general…
We propose a solution to the problem of time for systems with a single global Hamiltonian constraint. Our solution stems from the observation that, for these theories, conventional gauge theory methods fail to capture the full classical…
A new interpretation of the causality implementation in the Lienard-Wiechert solution raises new doubts against the validity of the Lorentz-Dirac equation and the limits of validity of the Minkowski structure of spacetime.
In this report we discuss the organization of different levels of nature and the corresponding space-time structures by the consideration of a particular problem of time irreversibility. The fundamental time irreversibility problem consists…
A two boundary quantum mechanics without time ordered causal structure is advocated as consistent theory. The apparent causal structure of usual "near future" macroscopic phenomena is attributed to a cosmological asymmetry and to rules…
By definition a spacetime is stably causal if it is possible to widen the light cones all over the spacetime without spoiling causality. We prove that if the spacetime is at least non-total imprisoning then it is stably causal provided the…
Space-time--time is a natural hybrid of Kaluza's five-dimensional geometry and Weyl's conformal space-time geometry. Translations along the secondary time dimension produce the electromagnetic gauge transformations of Kaluza--Klein theory…
It is shown that in the 4d Euclidean space there are two causal structures defined by the temporal field. One of them is well-known Minkowski spacetime. In this case the gravitational potential (the positive definite Riemann metric) and…
A theory governing the metric and matter fields in spacetime is {\it locally causal} if the probability distribution for the fields in any region is determined solely by physical data in the region's past, i.e. it is independent of events…