Related papers: Physical Coherence and Time's Emergence
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…
The modern Everett interpretation of quantum mechanics describes an emergent multiverse. The goal of this paper is to provide a perspicuous characterisation of how the multiverse emerges making use of a recent account of (weak) ontological…
Theories of emergent gravity have established a deep connection between entropy and the geometry of spacetime by looking at the latter through a thermodynamic lens. In this framework, the macroscopic properties of gravity arise in a…
We replace the usual Hamiltonian constraint of quantum gravity H|psi>=0 by a weaker one <psi|H|psi>=0. This allows |psi> to satisfy the time-dependent functional Schrodinger equation. In general, only the phase of the wave function appears…
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…
Several physical concepts, including the concept of time, are clarified herein by taking into account existing experimental data. In addition, the missing links among these physical concepts are established. This allows us to take another…
Time in quantum gravity is not a well-defined notion, despite its central role in the very definition of dynamics. Using the formalism of quantum geometrodynamics, we shortly review the problem and illustrate it with two proposed solutions.…
Assuming that Quantum Mechanics is universal and that it can be applied over all scales, then the Universe is allowed to be in a quantum superposition of states, where each of them can correspond to a different space-time geometry. How can…
Quantum decoherence can arise due to classical fluctuations in the parameters which define the dynamics of the system. In this case decoherence, and complementary noise, is manifest when data from repeated measurement trials are combined.…
First, I briefly review the different conceptions of time held by three rival interpretations of quantum theory: the collapse of the wave-packet, the pilot-wave interpretation, and the Everett interpretation (Section 2). Then I turn to a…
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…
Recent developments have shown that some semiclassical spacetimes cannot emerge from a traditional application of the rules of holography, prompting proposals for restoring their emergence with "observer rules". In this paper, we propose a…
In the event symmetric approach to quantum gravity it is assumed that the fundamental laws of physics must be invariant under exchange of any two space-time events. The fact that this symmetry if obviously not observed is attributed to the…
General relativity promotes space-time to a physical, dynamical object subject to equations of motion. Quantum gravity, accordingly, must provide a quantum framework for space-time, applicable on the smallest distance scales. Just like…
This work is divided into two parts. The first examines recent proposals for "witnessing" quantum gravity via entanglement from the point of view of Bronstein's original objection to a quantization of gravity. Using techniques from open…
The uncertainty principle is one of the characteristic properties of quantum theory, where it signals the incompatibility of two types of measurements. In this paper, we argue that measurements of time-of-arrival $T_x$ at position $x$ and…
Recent developments in holographic gravity suggest that spacetime structure may be deeply related to quantum mechanics. In this work, from a different perspective, we demonstrate that wave-particle duality can be interpreted as the…
It is univocally anticipated that in a theory of quantum gravity, there exist quantum superpositions of semiclassical states of spacetime geometry. Such states could arise for example, from a source mass in a superposition of spatial…
The task of quantizing gravity is compared with Einstein's relativization of gravity. The philosophical and physical foundations of general relativity are briefly reviewed. The Ehlers-Pirani-Schild scheme of operationally determining the…
We derive quantum kinetic equations for fermions in a homogeneous time-dependent background in presence of decohering collisions, by use of the Schwinger-Keldysh CTP-formalism. The quantum coherence (between particles and antiparticles) is…