Related papers: Emergent Spacetime: Reality or Illusion?
We emphasize that noncommutative (NC) spacetime necessarily implies emergent spacetime if spacetime at microscopic scales should be viewed as NC. In order to understand NC spacetime correctly, we need to deactivate the thought patterns that…
Research in quantum gravity strongly suggests that our world in not fundamentally spatiotemporal, but that spacetime may only emerge in some sense from a non-spatiotemporal structure, as this paper illustrates in the case of causal set…
Emergent gravity views spacetime as an entity emergent from a more complete theory of interacting fundamental constituents valid at much finer resolution or higher energies, usually assumed to be above the Planck energy. In this view…
Spacetime emergence refers to the notion that classical spacetime "emerges" as an approximate macroscopic entity from a non-spatio-temporal structure present in a more complete theory of interacting fundamental constituents. In this…
Physicists and philosophers are increasingly prone to regarding our current physical theories as providing 'effective descriptions' of real-world systems. In the context of quantum gravity research, this fuels a common view that the…
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…
We summarize the arguments that space and time are likely to be emergent notions; i.e. they are not present in the fundamental formulation of the theory, but appear as approximate macroscopic concepts. Along the way we briefly review…
Popular wisdom amongst theoretical physicists says that the continuum structure of spacetime is probably not elementary, but rather emergent. While many arguments to support that view arise from speculative ideas, the argument can also be…
We present the arguments suggesting that time is emergent in quantum gravity and discuss extensively, but without any technical detail, the many aspects that can be involved in such emergence. We refer to both the physical issues that need…
Quantum gravity has become a fertile interface between gravitational physics and quantum many-body physics, with its double goal of identifying the microscopic constituents of the universe and their fundamental dynamics, and of…
The concept of the space-time as emerging in the world phase transition, vs. a priori exiting, is put forward. The theory of gravity with two basic symmetries, the global affine one and the general covariance, is developed. Implications for…
The concept of the space-time as emerging in the world phase transition, vs. a priori existing, is put forward. The theory of gravity with two basic symmetries, the global affine one and the general covariance, is developed. Implications…
We explore the issue of spacetime emergence in quantum gravity, by articulating several levels at which this can be intended. These levels correspond to the reconstruction moves that are needed to recover the classical and continuum notion…
Theories of quantum gravity generically presuppose or predict that the reality underlying relativistic spacetimes they are describing is significantly non-spatiotemporal. On pain of empirical incoherence, approaches to quantum gravity must…
We discuss the hints for the disappearance of continuum space and time at microscopic scale. These include arguments for a discrete nature of them or for a fundamental non-locality, in a quantum theory of gravity. We discuss how these ideas…
Most approaches to quantum gravity suggest that relativistic spacetime is not fundamental, but instead emerges from some non-spatiotemporal structure. This paper investigates the implications of this suggestion for the possibility of time…
Typically, a less fundamental theory, or structure, emerging from a more fundamental one is an example of synchronic emergence. A model (and the physical state it describes) emerging from a prior model (state) upon which it nevertheless…
Quantum gravity is understood as a theory that, in some sense, unifies general relativity (GR) and quantum theory, and is supposed to replace GR at extremely small distances (high-energies). It may be that quantum gravity represents the…
Contemporary research programs in fundamental physics appear to suggest that there could be two (physical) times---or none at all. This essay articulates these possibilities in the context of quantum gravity, and in particular of…
We discuss the possibility that spacetime geometry may be an emergent phenomenon. This idea has been motivated by the Analogue Gravity programme. These are systems where the kinematics of small perturbations are dominated by an effective…