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---
created_at: '2017-01-07T02:37:53.000Z'
title: What If Time Really Exists? (2008)
url: https://arxiv.org/abs/0811.3772
author: privong
points: 158
story_text:
comment_text:
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created_at_i: 1483756673
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objectID: '13342083'
year: 2008
---
[Source](https://arxiv.org/abs/0811.3772 "Permalink to [0811.3772] What if Time Really Exists?")
# [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][32]
(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.
| ----- |
| 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][33] [gr-qc] |
|   | (or [arXiv:0811.3772v1][34] [gr-qc] for this version) |
## Submission history
From: Sean Carroll [[view email][35]]
[**v1]** Sun, 23 Nov 2008 21:07:47 GMT (33kb,D)
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