What if Time Really Exists?
Nov, 2008Citations per year
Abstract: (arXiv)
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.Note:
- Submission to the Foundational Questions Institute Essay Competition on 'The Nature of Time'
- time: asymmetry
- quantum mechanics: time dependence
- duality
- fluctuation: statistical
- entropy
- Hilbert space
- quantum gravity
- Schroedinger equation
- string model
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