Related papers: Spacetime functionalism from a realist perspective
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…
In an attempt to re-establish space-time as an essential frame for formulating quantum gravity - rather than an "emergent" one -, we find that exact invariance under scale transformations is an essential new ingredient for such a theory.…
The idea that the Universe is a program in a giant quantum computer is both fascinating and suffers from various problems. Nonetheless, it can provide a unified picture of physics and this can be very useful for the problem of Quantum…
Space and time are central concepts for understanding our World. They are important ingredients at the core of every scientific theory and subject of intense debate in philosophy. Albert Einstein's Special and General theories of Relativity…
The state-of-the-art physics consists of two irreconcilable branches, i.e., the quantum theory and the general relativity, which work well in their own territories, independently. However, what are quantum and spacetime after all? The key…
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…
The quest for a consistent theory which describes the quantum microstructure of spacetime seems to require some departure from the paradigms that have been followed in the construction of quantum theories for the other fundamental…
In quantum mechanics time usually appears as classical parameter which means that it is treated as being essentially different from spatial coordinates that are represented by operators. On the other hand, relativity theory demands to treat…
The present study attempts to provide a consistent and coherent account of what the world could be like, given the conceptual framework and results of contemporary quantum theory. It is suggested that standard quantum mechanics can, and…
We review the investigations on the quantum structure of spactime, to be found at the Planck scale if one takes into account the operational limitations to localization of events which result from the concurrence of Quantum Mechanics and…
It is often said that in general relativity time does not exist. This is because the Einstein equations generate motion in time that is a symmetry of the theory, not true time evolution. In quantum gravity, the timelessness of general…
In this article, I argue that modern spacetime physics causes problems for a number of traditional accounts of modality, but also offers important new ideas about the connection between modal and non-modal features of reality. I suggest…
Time in relativity theory has a status different from that adopted by standard quantum mechanics, where time is considered as a parameter measured with reference to an external absolute Newtonian frame. This status strongly restricts its…
In quantum gravity, one looks for alternative structures to spacetime physics than ordinary real manifolds. Here, we propose an alternative universal construction containing the latter as an equilibrium state under the action of the…
The temporal Bell inequalities are derived from the assumptions of realism and locality in time. It is shown that quantum mechanics violates these inequalities and thus is in conflict with the two assumptions. This can be used for…
Although it's widely believed that gravity should have a quantum nature like every other force, the conceptual obstacles to constructing a quantum theory of gravity compel us to explore other perspectives. Gravity is not like any other…
Loop quantum gravity is a mature theory. To proceed to explicit calculations in cosmology, it is necessary to make assumptions and simplifications based on the symmetries of the cosmological setting. Symmetry reduction is especially…
General Theory of Relativity and Quantum theory gives two different description of the same mother nature in the big and small scale respectively. Mathematical languages of these two theories are entirely different, one is geometric while…
This essay examines our fundamental conceptions of time, spacetime, the asymmetry of time, and the motion of a quantum mechanical particle. The concept of time has multiple meanings and these are often confused in the literature and must be…
The theory of quantum gravity is aimed to fuse general relativity with quantum theory into a more fundamental framework. The space of quantum gravity provides both the non-fixed causality of general relativity and the quantum uncertainty of…