Related papers: The Problem of Time and its Quantum Resolution
An asymmetry exists between time and space in the sense that physical systems inevitably evolve over time whereas there is no corresponding ubiquitous translation over space. The asymmetry, which is presumed to be elemental, is represented…
We consider the classical concept of time of permanence and observe that its quantum equivalent is described by a bona fide self-adjoint operator. Its interpretation, by means of the spectral theorem, reveals that we have to abandon not…
We apply a recent proposal for defining states and observables in quantum gravity to simple models. First, we consider a Klein-Gordon particle in an ex- ternal potential in Minkowski space and compare our proposal to the theory ob- tained…
General relativity allows solutions exhibiting closed timelike curves. Time travel generates paradoxes and quantum mechanics generalizations were proposed to solve those paradoxes. The implications of self-consistent interactions on acausal…
Familiar textbook quantum mechanics assumes a fixed background spacetime to define states on spacelike surfaces and their unitary evolution between them. Quantum theory has changed as our conceptions of space and time have evolved. But…
The configuration space of general relativity is superspace - the space of all Riemannian 3-metrics modulo diffeomorphisms. However, it has been argued that the configuration space for gravity should be conformal superspace - the space of…
A new dynamical paradigm merging quantum dynamics with cosmology is discussed. Time evolution involves a genuine passage of time, which distinguishes the formalism from those where dynamics in space is equivalent to statics in space-time.…
General relativity successfully describes space-times at scales that we can observe and probe today, but it cannot be complete as a consequence of singularity theorems. For a long time there have been indications that quantum gravity will…
General relativity is incomplete because it cannot describe quantum effects of space-time. The complete theory of quantum gravity is not yet known and to date no observational evidence exists that space-time is quantized. However, in most…
Three of the big puzzles of theoretical physics are the following: (i) There is apparently no time evolution in the dynamics of quantum general relativity, because the allowed quantum states must obey the Hamiltonian constraint. (ii) During…
It is often conjectured that a choice of time function merely sets up a frame for the quantum evolution of gravitational field, meaning that all choices should be in some sense compatible. In order to explore this conjecture (and the…
In this paper I argue that the fundamental aspect of our notion of time is that it defines an order relation, be it a total order relation between configurations of the world or just a partial order relation between events. This position is…
We show that the emergence of time evolution in an otherwise timeless nonrelativistic closed quantum system -- viewed as a poor man's model of generally covariant quantum theory -- can be understood from the perspective of the path integral…
We quantize spherically symmetric electrovacuum gravity. The algebra of Hamiltonian constraints can be made Abelian via a rescaling and linear combination with the diffeomorphism constraint. As a result the constraint algebra is a true Lie…
The problem of constructing a quantum theory of gravity is considered from a novel viewpoint. It is argued that any consistent theory of gravity should incorporate a relational character between the matter constituents of the theory. In…
A long-standing problem in quantum gravity and cosmology is the quantization of systems in which time evolution is generated by a constraint that must vanish on solutions. Here, an algebraic formulation of this problem is presented,…
We study the quantization of spherically symmetric vacuum spacetimes within loop quantum gravity. In particular, we give additional details about our previous work in which we showed that one could complete the quantization the model and…
Loop Quantum Gravity faces challenges in constructing a well-defined Hamiltonian constraint and understanding the quantum notion of time. In this paper these issues are studied by quantizing the $U(1)^3$ model, a simplified system…
While Quantum Gravity remains elusive and Quantum Field Theory retains the interpretational difficulties of Quantum Mechanics, we have introduced an alternate approach to the unification of particles, fields, space and time, suggesting that…
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…