Foundations of Physics

Smolin, Lee

doi: 10.1007/s10701-018-0141-8pmid: N/A

A proposal is made for a fundamental theory, in which the history of the universe is constituted of diverse views of itself. Views are attributes of events, and the theory’s only be-ables; they comprise information about energy and momentum transferred to an event from its causal past. A dynamics is proposed for a universe constituted of views of events, which combines the energetic causal set dynamics with a potential energy based on a measure of the distinctiveness of the views, called the variety (Smolin in Found Phys 46(6):736–758, 2016). As in the real ensemble formulation of quantum mechanics (Barbour and Smolin in Variety, complexity and cosmology, arXiv: hep-th/9203041), quantum pure states are associated to ensembles of similar events; the quantum potential of Bohm then arises from the variety.

Loveridge, Leon; Miyadera, Takayuki; Busch, Paul

doi: 10.1007/s10701-018-0138-3pmid: N/A

We propose that observables in quantum theory are properly understood as representatives of symmetry-invariant quantities relating one system to another, the latter to be called a reference system. We provide a rigorous mathematical language to introduce and study quantum reference systems, showing that the orthodox “absolute” quantities are good representatives of observable relative quantities if the reference state is suitably localised. We use this relational formalism to critique the literature on the relationship between reference frames and superselection rules, settling a long-standing debate on the subject.

Atiyah, M.; Malkoun, J.

doi: 10.1007/s10701-018-0139-2pmid: N/A

Atiyah and Sutcliffe (Proc R Soc Lond Ser A 458:1089–1115, 2002) made a number of conjectures about configurations of N distinct points in hyperbolic 3-space, arising from ideas of Berry and Robbins (Proc R Soc Lond Ser A 453:1771–1790, 1997). In this paper we prove all these conjectures, purely geometrically, but we also provide a physical interpretation in terms of Electrons.

Vink, Jeroen

doi: 10.1007/s10701-018-0140-9pmid: N/A

The formulation of quantum mechanics developed by Bohm, which can generate well-defined trajectories for the underlying particles in the theory, can equally well be applied to relativistic quantum field theories to generate dynamics for the underlying fields. However, it does not produce trajectories for the particles associated with these fields. Bell has shown that an extension of Bohm’s approach can be used to provide dynamics for the fermionic occupation numbers in a relativistic quantum field theory. In the present paper, Bell’s formulation is adopted and elaborated on, with a full account of all technical detail required to apply his approach to a bosonic quantum field theory on a lattice. This allows an explicit computation of (stochastic) trajectories for massive and massless particles in this theory. Also particle creation and annihilation, and their impact on particle propagation, is illustrated using this model.

Doboszewski, Juliusz; Linnemann, Niels

doi: 10.1007/s10701-017-0136-xpmid: N/A

General relativity cannot be formulated as a perturbatively renormalizable quantum field theory. An argument relying on the validity of the Bekenstein–Hawking entropy formula aims at dismissing gravity as non-renormalizable per se, against hopes (underlying programs such as Asymptotic Safety) that d-dimensional GR could turn out to have a non-perturbatively renormalizable d–dimensional quantum field theoretic formulation. In this note we discuss various forms of highly problematic semi-classical extrapolations assumed by both sides of the debate concerning what we call The Entropy Argument, and show that a large class of dimensional reduction scenarios leads to the blow-up of Bekenstein–Hawking entropy.

Avalos, R.; Dahia, F.; Romero, C.

doi: 10.1007/s10701-017-0134-zpmid: N/A

We discuss the question of whether or not a general Weyl structure is a suitable mathematical model of space–time. This is an issue that has been in debate since Weyl formulated his unified field theory for the first time. We do not present the discussion from the point of view of a particular unification theory, but instead from a more general standpoint, in which the viability of such a structure as a model of space–time is investigated. Our starting point is the well known axiomatic approach to space–time given by Elhers, Pirani and Schild (EPS). In this framework, we carry out an exhaustive analysis of what is required for a consistent definition for proper time and show that such a definition leads to the prediction of the so-called “second clock effect”. We take the view that if, based on experience, we were to reject space–time models predicting this effect, this could be incorporated as the last axiom in the EPS approach. Finally, we provide a proof that, in this case, we are led to a Weyl integrable space–time as the most general structure that would be suitable to model space–time.