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| 2017-01-07T02:37:53.000Z | What If Time Really Exists? (2008) | https://arxiv.org/abs/0811.3772 | privong | 158 | 204 | 1483756673 |
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13342083 | 2008 |
[0811.3772] What if Time Really Exists?
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General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Title: What if Time Really Exists?
Authors: Sean M. Carroll
(Submitted on 23 Nov 2008)
Abstract: Despite the obvious utility of the concept, it has often been argued that time does not exist. I take the opposite perspective: let's imagine that time does exist, and the universe is described by a quantum state obeying ordinary time-dependent quantum mechanics. Reconciling this simple picture with the known facts about our universe turns out to be a non-trivial task, but by taking it seriously we can infer deep facts about the fundamental nature of reality. The arrow of time finds a plausible explanation in a "Heraclitean universe," described by a quantum state eternally evolving in an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space.
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| Comments: | Submission to the Foundational Questions Institute Essay Competition on "The Nature of Time." |
| Subjects: | General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc); High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) |
| Cite as: | arXiv:0811.3772 [gr-qc] |
| | (or arXiv:0811.3772v1 [gr-qc] for this version) |
Submission history
From: Sean Carroll [view email]
[v1] Sun, 23 Nov 2008 21:07:47 GMT (33kb,D)
Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)
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