Related papers: Spacetime might not be doomed after all

The possibility of variations of the values of fundamental constants is a phenomenon predicted by a number of scenarios beyond General Relativity. This can happen if ``our'' fundamental constants are not the actual constants of the…

Two people may claim both to be naturalists, but have divergent conceptions of basic elements of the natural world which lead them to mean different things when they talk about laws of nature, or states, or the role of mathematics in…

We propose that spacetime is fundamentally a property of matter, inseparable from it. This leads us to suggest that all properties of matter must be elevated to the same status as that of spacetime in quantum field theories of matter. We…

We address issues on the origin of gravity and the dark energy (or the cosmological constant) from the perspectives of emergent gravity. We discuss how the emergent gravity reveals a noble, radically different picture about the origin of…

We consider Hilbert's problem of the axioms of Physics at a qualitative or conceptual level. This issue is more pressing than ever as we seek to understand how both General Relativity and quantum theory could emerge from some deeper theory…

A new speculative model for the expansion of our universe has been under development by the author for the last two decades, which correctly predicts astronomical measurements with no dark matter or dark energy. This new closed model (no…

This article gives an elementary account of the recently proposed theory of spontaneous quantum gravity. It is argued that a viable quantum theory of gravity should be falsifiable, and hence it should dynamically explain the observed…

We will look for an implementation of new symmetries in the space-time structure and their cosmological implications. This search will allow us to find a unified vision for electrodynamics and gravitation. We will attempt to develop a…

A hypothesis of general relativity is that spacetime torsion vanishes identically. This assumption has no empirical support; in fact, a nonvanishing torsion is compatible with all the experimental tests of general relativity. The first part…

It is suggested that the apparently disparate cosmological phenomena attributed to so-called 'dark matter' and 'dark energy' arise from the same fundamental physical process: the emergence, from the quantum level, of spacetime itself. This…

The expansion of our universe, when followed backward in time, implies that it emerged from a phase of huge density, the big bang. These stages are so extreme that classical general relativity combined with matter theories is not able to…

As repeatedly emphasized by Einstein our knowledge of the structure of space and time is based entirely on inferences from observations of physical objects and processes. At the most fundamental level these objects and processes are…

The properties of the stable distance over stable spacetimes are used as a reference to propose a simplified, abstract notion of spacetime. The discussion shows that spacetime, with its topology, causal order and (upper semi-continuous)…

General theory of relativity (or Lovelock extensions) is a dynamical theory; given an initial configuration on a space-like hypersurface, it makes a definite prediction of the final configuration. Recent developments suggest that gravity…

I examine the debate between substantivalists and relationalists about the ontological character of spacetime and conclude it is not well posed. I argue that the so-called Hole Argument does not bear on the debate, because it provides no…

The concept of emergence is critically analyzed in particular with respect to the assumed emergence of mental properties from a neuronal basis. We argue that so-called contextual emergence is needed to avoid an eliminatory reductionism.…

It is widely hoped that quantum gravity will shed light on the question of the origin of time in physics. The currently dominant approaches to a candidate quantum theory of gravity have naturally evolved from general relativity, on the one…

Spacetime must be foliable by spacelike surfaces for the quantum mechanics of matter fields to be formulated in terms of a unitarily evolving state vector defined on spacelike surfaces. When a spacetime cannot be foliated by spacelike…

The theories of quantum mechanics and relativity dramatically altered our understanding of the universe ushering in the era of modern physics. Quantum theory deals with objects probabilistically at small scales, whereas relativity deals…

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…