A Microscopic Liouville arrow of time
May, 1998
25 pages
Published in:
- Chaos Solitons Fractals 10 (1999) 345-363
e-Print:
- hep-th/9805120 [hep-th]
Report number:
- ACT-6-98,
- CTP-TAMU-21-98,
- OUTP-98-38-P
Citations per year
Abstract:
We discuss the treatment of quantum-gravitational fluctuations in the space-time background as an `environment', using the formalism for open quantum-mechanical systems, which leads to a microscopic arrow of time. After reviewing briefly the open-system formalism, and the motivations for treating quantum gravity as an `environment', we present an example from general relativity and a general framework based on non-critical strings, with a Liouville field that we identify with time. We illustrate this approach with calculations in the contexts of two-dimensional models and branes. Finally, some prospects for observational tests of these ideas are mentioned.- quantum gravity: fluctuation
- time
- general relativity
- string model
- field theory: Liouville
- membrane model: D-brane
- quantum mechanics
- density matrix
- decoherence
- renormalization group
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