Related papers: A singularity-free WEC-respecting time machine
In quantum theory it is possible to explain time, and dynamics, in terms of entanglement. This is the timeless approach to time, which assumes that the universe is in a stationary state, where two non-interacting subsystems, the clock and…
We consider spacetime to be a 4-dimensional differentiable manifold that can be split locally into time and space. No metric, no linear connection are assumed. Matter is described by classical fields/fluids. We distinguish electrically…
A two boundary quantum mechanics without time ordered causal structure is advocated as consistent theory. The apparent causal structure of usual "near future" macroscopic phenomena is attributed to a cosmological asymmetry and to rules…
In this paper I present a spacetime of two open universes connected by a Lorentzian wormhole. The spacetime has the following features: (1) It can exactly solve the Einstein equations; (2) The weak energy condition is satisfied everywhere;…
As Einstein's gravity is a non-renormalizable theory, it can be a good description of physics only at the scales of energy or spacetime curvature below the Planck mass. Moreover, it requires the presence of an infinite tower of…
Null Energy Condition (NEC) can be violated in a consistent way in models with unconventional kinetic terms, notably, in Galileon theories and their generalizations. We make use of one of these, the scale-invariant kinetic braiding model,…
The problem of time evolution in quantum cosmology is studied in the context of a dust-filled, spatially flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe. In this model, two versions of the commonly-adopted notion of internal time can be…
We show that a singularity can occur at a finite future time in an expanding Friedmann universe even when the density is positive and the density plus the sum of the principal pressures is positive. Explicit examples are constructed and a…
Physical systems are usually assumed to evolve relative to an external time parameter, which is problematic because in quantum theory that parameter is not a physical observable. Page & Wootters (1984) solved this by proposing that the…
A fundamental length is introduced into physics in a way which respects the principles of relativity and quantum field theory. This improves the properties of quantum field theory: divergences are removed. How to quantize gravity is also…
We continue our analysis of a quantum cosmology model describing a flat Friedmann--Lema\^itre--Robertson--Walker universe filled with a (free) massless scalar field and an arbitrary perfect fluid. For positive energy density in the scalar…
In arXiv:1707.08641, Tim Maudlin claims to construct a counterexample to the result of Proc. Roy. Soc. A vol. 473, iss. 2202, 2017 (arXiv:1607.07871), in which it was shown that no realist model satisfying a certain notion of time-symmetry…
In an earlier paper I proposed a highly symmetric semi-classical initial condition to describe the universe in the period leading up to the electroweak transition and completely determine all cosmology after that. Nothing beyond the…
A new general procedure to construct realistic spacetimes is introduced. It is based on the null congruence on a time-oriented Lorentzian manifold associated to a certain timelike vector field. As an application, new examples of stably…
In quantum gravity there is no notion of absolute time. Like all other quantities in the theory, the notion of time has to be introduced "relationally", by studying the behavior of some physical quantities in terms of others chosen as a…
Several years ago, two of the present authors proposed the concept of the border of spacetime as a generalization of spacetime singularities. Visible borders of spacetime, which replace naked singularities of classical theory, are not only…
It is often said that time vanishes in quantum gravity. One general approach to quantum gravity accepts this fundamental timelessness but seeks to derive time's emergence at a non-fundamental level. To better assess such approaches, I…
The question of possible physics before Big Bang (or after Big Crunch) is addressed via a schematic non-covariant simulation of the loss of observability of the Universe. Our model is drastically simplified by the reduction of its degrees…
It is proposed to give up the description of physical states in terms of ensembles of state vectors with various probabilities, relying instead solely on the density matrix as the description of reality. With this definition of a physical…
Time crystals, a phase showing spontaneous breaking of time-translation symmetry, has been an intriguing subject for systems far away from equilibrium. Recent experiments found such a phase both in the presence and absence of localization,…