Related papers: Is spacetime quantum?
General relativity is a background-independent theory of a dynamical classical spacetime geometry. Quantum theory is formulated in a classical spacetime, as an intrinsically probabilistic, contextual theory of non-classical, interfering…
Time is absolute in standard quantum theory and dynamical in general relativity. The combination of both theories into a theory of quantum gravity leads therefore to a "problem of time". In my essay I shall investigate those consequences…
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…
The incompatibility between GR and QM is generally seen as a sufficient motivation for the development of a theory of Quantum Gravity. If - so a typical argumentation - QM gives a universally valid basis for the description of all natural…
Quantum Theory, similar to Relativity Theory, requires a new concept of space-time, imposed by a universal constant. While velocity of light $c$ not being infinite calls for a redefinition of space-time on large and cosmological scales,…
Understanding the emergence of a tangible 4-dimensional space-time from a quantum theory of gravity promises to be a tremendously difficult task. This article makes the case that this task may not have to be carried. Space-time as we know…
Quantum gravity (or quantum spacetime) is to unify general relativity and quantum mechanics into a single theoretical framework and presented as the most important open puzzle in fundamental physics. The development of a microscopic theory…
The aim of this work is to review the concepts of time in quantum mechanics and general relativity to show their incompatibility. We show that the absolute character of Newtonian time is present in quantum mechanics and also partially in…
The canonical answer to the question posed is "Yes." -- tacitly assuming that quantum theory and the concept of spacetime are to be unified by `quantizing' a theory of gravitation. Yet, instead, one may ponder: Could quantum mechanics arise…
In this paper, we study implications of the geometrical nature of space- time for some of the basic tenets of quantum mechanics. That is, we study two different implications of the principle of general covariance; first we quantize a…
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…
It is shown that, with some reasonable assumptions, the theory of general relativity can be made compatible with quantum mechanics by using the field equations of general relativity to construct a Robertson-Walker metric for a quantum…
A consistent theory of quantum gravity will require a fully quantum formulation of the classical equivalence principle. Such a formulation has been recently proposed in terms of the equality of the rest, inertial and gravitational mass…
Numerous approaches to a quantum theory of gravity posit fundamental ontologies that exclude spacetime, either partially or wholly. This situation raises deep questions about how such theories could relate to the empirical realm, since…
Although general relativity is a predictively successful theory, it treats matter as classical rather than as quantum. For this reason, it will have to be replaced by a more fundamental quantum theory of gravity. Attempts to formulate a…
Quantum non-local correlations and the acausal, spooky action at a distance suggest a discord between quantum theory and special relativity. We propose a resolution for this discord by first observing that there is a problem of time in…
Rather than an a priori arena in which events take place, space-time is a construction of our mind making possible a particular kind of ordering of events. As quantum entanglement is a property of states independent of classical distances,…
In order to obtain a well defined quantum gravity we define the spacetime in relation to the "phenomenology" of the physical interactions; however we shall to speculate with this "in General". Besides, we comment the reasons that give to…
The perspective is advanced that the time parameter in quantum mechanics corresponds to the time coordinate in a Minkowski flat spacetime local approximation to the actual dynamical curved spacetime of General Relativity, rather than to an…
We argue that special and general theories of relativity implicitly assume spacetime events correspond to quantum measurement outcomes. This leads to a change in how one should view the equivalence of spacetime and gravity. We describe a…