Related papers: Time Contortions in Modern Physics
A set of diverse but mutually consistent results obtained in different settings has spawned a new view of loop quantum gravity and its physical implications, based on the interplay of operator calculations and effective theory: Quantum…
Astronomical observations have a unique ability to determine the laws of physics at distant times in the universe. They, therefore, have particular relevance in answering the basic question as to whether the laws of physics are invariant…
In this letter we discuss the possibility of treating the spacetime by itself as a kind of deformable body for which we can define an fundamental lattice, just like atoms in crystal lattices. We show three signs pointing in that direction.…
Quantum mechanical unitarity in our universe is challenged both by the notion of the big bang, in which nothing transforms into something, and the expansion of space, in which something transforms into more something. This motivates the…
Time and space translation invariance, giving rise to energy and momentum conservation, are not only amongst the most fundamental but also the most generally accepted symmetry assumptions in physics. It is nevertheless prudent to put such…
The fact that in Minkowski space, space and time are both quantized does not have to be introduced as a new postulate in physics, but can actually be derived by combining certain features of General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. This is…
The possibility has been recently demonstrated to manufacture (nonrelativistic, Hamiltonian) many-body problems which feature an isochronous time evolution with an arbitrarily assigned period $T$ yet mimic with good approximation, or even…
We consider the classical dynamics of a particle in a $d=2,3$-dimensional space-periodic potential under the influence of time-periodic external fields with zero mean. We perform a general time-space symmetry analysis and identify…
Quantum theory and relativity offer different conceptions of time. To explore the conflict between them, we study a quantum version of the light-clock commonly used to illustrate relativistic time dilation. This semiclassical model combines…
We investigate the origin of the arrow of time in quantum mechanics in the context of quantum cosmology. The ``Copenhagen'' quantum mechanics of measured subsystems incorporates a fundamental arrow of time. Extending discussions of…
Quantum effects arising from manifestly broken time-reversal symmetry are investigated using time-dependent perturbation theory in a simple model. The forward time and the backward time Hamiltonians are taken to be different and hence the…
In quantum mechanics time usually appears as classical parameter which means that it is treated as being essentially different from spatial coordinates that are represented by operators. On the other hand, relativity theory demands to treat…
Fluctuation theorems establish deep relations between observables away from thermal equilibrium. Until recently, the research on fluctuation theorems was focused on time-reversal-invariant systems. In this review we address some newly…
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…
A model of a stationary universe is proposed. In this framework, time is defined as a local and quantum-mechanical notion in the sense that it is defined for each local and quantum-mechanical system consisting of finite number of particles.…
We explore nonlocally modified models of gravity, inspired by quantum loop corrections, as a mechanism for explaining current cosmic acceleration. These theories enjoy two major advantages: they allow a delayed response to cosmic events,…
The first three sections of this article contain a broad brush summary of the profound changes in the notion of time in fundamental physics that were brought about by three revolutions: the foundations of mechanics distilled by Newton in…
At present a number of current or proposed experiments are directed towards a search for a `new physics' by detecting variations of fundamental physical constants or violations of certain basic symmetries. Various problems related to the…
In this thesis we study different aspects of noncommutativity in quantum mechanics, field theory and gravity. We give particular emphasis on the underlying symmetries of these theories. Deformations of usual symmetries like the external…
It is rarely emphasized in modern physics textbooks that our definitions of space and time have to reflect their complete interdependence. Our intuitive methods of always picturing one-dimensional space as a sum of unit-length rods and of…