Related papers: Two arguments for more fundamental building blocks

We portray the structure of quantum gravity emerging from recent progress in understanding the quantum mechanics of an evaporating black hole. Quantum gravity admits two different descriptions, based on Euclidean gravitational path integral…

There is sufficient amount of internal evidence in the nature of gravitational theories to indicate that gravity is an emergent phenomenon like, e.g, elasticity. Such an emergent nature is most apparent in the structure of gravitational…

Any canonical quantum theory can be understood to arise from the compatibility of the statistical geometry of distinguishable observations with the canonical Poisson structure of Hamiltonian dynamics. This geometric perspective offers a…

Niels Bohr wrote: "There is no quantum world. There is only an abstract quantum physical description. It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how Nature is. Physics concerns what we can say about Nature." In an…

We describe a system of axioms that, on one hand, is sufficient for constructing the standard mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics and, on the other hand, is necessary from the phenomenological standpoint. In the proposed scheme, the…

So far, none of attempts to quantize gravity has led to a satisfactory model that not only describe gravity in the realm of a quantum world, but also its relation to elementary particles and other fundamental forces. Here, we outline the…

Quantum foundations are still unsettled, with mixed effects on science and society. By now it should be possible to obtain consensus on at least one issue: Are the fundamental constituents fields or particles? As this paper shows,…

After a long technical and consequently philosophical disgression about the necessity of the construction presented in this book, a logically consistent and precise theory of quantum gravity is presented. The construction of this theory…

We propose a new line of attack to create a finite quantum theory which includes general relativity and (perhaps) the standard model in its low energy limit. The theory would emerge from the categorical approach. A structure is observed on…

The unification of gravity and quantum mechanics remains one of the most profound open questions in science. With recent advances in quantum technology, an experimental idea first proposed by Richard Feynman is now regarded as a promising…

Newton's mechanical revolution unifies the motion of planets in the sky and falling of apple on earth. Maxwell's electromagnetic revolution unifies electricity, magnetism, and light. Einstein's relativity revolution unifies space with time,…

We propose that at the beginning of the universe gravity existed in a limbo either because it was switched off or because it was only conformally coupled to all particles. This picture can be reverse-engineered from the requirement that the…

Fundamental constants are a cornerstone of the physical laws. Any constant varying in space and/or time would signal a violation of local position invariance and be associated with a violation of the universality of free fall, and hence of…

In this two-part paper, we review, and then develop, the assessment of the hole argument for general relativity. This first Part reviews the literature hitherto, focussing on the philosophical aspects. It also introduces two main ideas we…

This article gives an overview of recent results on the relation between quantum field theory and motives, with an emphasis on two different approaches: a "bottom-up" approach based on the algebraic geometry of varieties associated to…

In learning quantum mechanics, an essential question has always been: How does one go about developing a "physical feel" for quantum phenomena? Naturally, one needs a basis or ground zero to start from, and that basis must be unlike…

The black hole information paradox tells us something important about the way quantum mechanics and gravity fit together. In these lectures I try to give a pedagogical review of the essential physics leading to the paradox, using mostly…

Intuitively, the more powerful a theory is, the greater the variety and quantity of ideas can be expressed through its formal language. Therefore, when comparing two theories concerning the same subject, it seems only reasonable to compare…

We present a general formalism with the aim of describing the situation of an entity, how it is, how it reacts to experiments, how we can make statistics with it, and how it changes under the influence of the rest of the universe. Therefore…

The main distinction between classical mechanics and quantum mechanics is the lack in the latter of a full mechanical determinism: different final states can arise from the same physical state, after the measurement. No hidden variable is…