Related papers: Problem of Time in Quantum Gravity
Gravitational decoherence (GD) refers to the effects of gravity in actuating the classical appearance of a quantum system. Because the underlying processes involve issues in general relativity (GR), quantum field theory (QFT) and quantum…
Among the various attempts to formulate a theory of quantum gravity, a class of approaches suggests that spacetime, as modeled by general relativity, is destined to fade away. A major issue becomes then to identify which structures may…
Time plays a special role in Standard Quantum Theory. The concept of time observable causes many controversies there. In Event Enhanced Quantum Theory (in short: EEQT) Schroedinger's differential equation is replaced by a em piecewise…
On the path towards quantum gravity, we find friction between temporal relations in quantum mechanics (QM) (where they are fixed and field-independent), and in general relativity (where they are field-dependent and dynamic). This paper aims…
Despite the ultraviolet problems with canonical quantum gravity, as an effective field theory its infrared phenomena should enjoy fully quantum mechanical unitary time evolution. Currently this is not possible, the impediment being what is…
A possible solution of the problem of time in the Wheeler - DeWitt quantum geometrodynamics is that time appears in semiclassical limit. Following this line of thinking, one can come to the Schrodinger equation for matter fields in curved…
We describe a theory amalgamating quantum theory and general relativity through the identification of a continuous 4-dimensional spacetime arena constructed from the substructures of a generalised multi-dimensional form for proper time. In…
A class of diffeomorphism invariant, physical observables, so-called astrometric observables, is introduced. A particularly simple example, the time delay, which expresses the difference between two initially synchronized proper time clocks…
Some authors in the quantum gravity community endorse, explicitly or implicitly, a radical relationalist view of time which states that the ordinal structure of time is not needed even in our classical theories, especially in general…
This paper explores the status of some notions which are usually associated to time, like datations, chronology, durations, causality, cosmic time and time functions in the Einsteinian relativistic theories. It shows how, even if some of…
An increasing number of papers have appeared in recent years on decoherence in quantum gravity at the Planck energy. We discuss the meaning of decoherence in quantum gravity starting from the common notion that quantum gravity is a theory…
It is commonly accepted that the combination of quantum mechanics and general relativity gives rise to the emergence of a minimum uncertainty both in space and time. The arguments that support this conclusion are mainly based on…
The proper resolution of the so-called measurement problem requires a "top-down" conception of the quantum world that is opposed to the usual "bottom-up" conception, which builds on an intrinsically and maximally differentiated manifold.…
Barbour, Hawking, Misner and others have argued that time cannot play an essential role in the formulation of a quantum theory of cosmology. Here we present three challenges to their arguments, taken from works and remarks by Kauffman,…
It is often said that time vanishes in quantum gravity. One general approach to quantum gravity accepts this fundamental timelessness but seeks to derive time's emergence at a non-fundamental level. To better assess such approaches, I…
We investigate the possibility of assigning consistent probabilities to sets of histories characterized by whether they enter a particular subspace of the Hilbert space of a closed system during a given time interval. In particular we…
The description of space-time in a quantum theoretical framework must be considered as a fundamental problem in physics. Most attempts start with an already given classical space-time - then the quantization is done. In contrast to this the…
We argue that the main reason of crisis in quantum theory is that nature, which is fundamentally discrete and even finite, is described by classical mathematics involving the notions of infinitely small, continuity etc. Moreover, since…
After a brief introduction to issues that plague the realization of a theory of quantum gravity, I suggest that the main one concerns a quantization of the principle of relative simultaneity. This leads me to a distinction between time and…
We use the polygon representation of 2+1--dimensional gravity to explicitly carry out the canonical quantization of a universe with the topology of a torus. The mapping-class-invariant wave function for a quantum ''big bounce'', is…