Related papers: The End of Time?
"It is utterly beyond our power to measure the changes of things by time. Quite the contrary, time is an abstraction at which we arrive through the changes of things." Ernst Mach [1]. What change? Three answers to this are `any change'…
This article contains a local solution to the notorious Problem of Time in Quantum Gravity at the conceptual level and which is actually realizable for the relational triangle. The Problem of Time is that `time' in GR and `time' in ordinary…
A local resolution to the Problem of Time that is Machian and was previously demonstrated for various relational mechanics models is here shown to work for a more widely studied quantum cosmological model. Namely, closed isotropic…
The time irreversibility problem is the dichotomy of the reversible microscopic dynamics and the irreversible macroscopic physics. This problem was considered by Boltzmann, Poincar\'e, Bogolyubov and many other authors and though some…
An effective mathematical framework based on Presymplectic Geometry for dealing with the "phase space picture" of timeless dynamics in General Relativity is presented. In General Relativity, the presence of the scalar Hamiltonian constraint…
The Problem of Time is that `time' in each of ordinary quantum theory and general relativity are mutually incompatible notions. This causes difficulties in trying to put these two theories together to form a theory of Quantum Gravity. The…
Barbour's response to our recent paper on "Mach's principle and higher-dimensional dynamics" describes an approach to Mach's principle in which the universe as a whole is involved in the definition of inertial frames of reference. Moreover,…
Classical and semiclassical schemes are presented that are timeless at the primary level and recover time from Mach's `time is to be abstracted from change' principle at the emergent secondary level. The semiclassical scheme is a Machian…
Some notes and questions about the concept of time are exposed. Particular reference is given to the problem in quantum mechanics, in connection with the indeterminacy principle.
This paper considers a new and deeply challenging face of the problem of time in the context of cosmology drawing on the work of Thiemann (2006, 2007). Thiemann argues for a radical response to the cosmic problem of time that requires us to…
Barbour, Hawking, Misner and others have argued that time cannot play an essential role in the formulation of a quantum theory of cosmology. Here we present three challenges to their arguments, taken from works and remarks by Kauffman,…
In a recent preprint [1] Jeffrey Bub presents a discussion of neo-Bohrian interpretations of quantum mechanics, and also of von Neumann's work on infinite tensor products [2]. He rightfully writes that this work provides a theoretical…
Time of arrival in quantum mechanics is discussed in two versions: the classical axiomatic "time of arrival operator" introduced by J. Kijowski and the EEQT method. It is suggested that for free particles the two methods may lead to the…
We introduce infinite time computable model theory, the computable model theory arising with infinite time Turing machines, which provide infinitary notions of computability for structures built on the reals R. Much of the finite time…
The null-brane space-time provides a simple model of a big crunch/big bang singularity. A non-perturbative definition of M-theory on this space-time was recently provided using matrix theory. We derive the fermion couplings for this matrix…
Einstein believed that Mach's principle should play a major role in finding a meaningful spacetime geometry, though it was discovered later that his field equations gave some solutions which were not Machian. It is shown, in this essay,…
We will highlight that despite there being various approaches to quantum gravity, there are universal approach-independent features of quantum gravity. The geometry of spacetime becomes an emergent structure, which emerges from some purely…
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 notions of time in the theories of Newton and Einstein are reviewed so that certain of their assumptions are clarified. These assumptions will be seen as the causes of the incompatibility between the two different ways of understanding…
The paper presents a program to construct a non-relativistic relational Bohmian theory, that is, a theory of $N$ moving point-like particles that dispenses with space and time as fundamental background structures. The relational program…