``Superconducting'' causal nets (Q1106496)

A new physics of space-time is proposed. The very radical point of view is adopted that the basic structure underlying the proper theory of space-time (in fact, of all physical phenomena) is a net, i.e. a point set of events together with the relation of immediate causal connection. This relation is considered to be the basic dynamical variable and subject to a quantization procedure. The objects to be quantized are not the particles in the ordinary sense but the events. Nevertheless some standard notions of quantum theory can be used. In particular, it is argued that there exist two phases of the quantum net: the normal, high-temperature disordered phase and the condensed, ``superconducting'' one. The transition temperature may be as low as 100 GeV. It is also argued that the existence of the condensed phase is necessary to account for the validity of the law of inertia, existence of real gauge fields, the reality of Minkowski space (which is just the macroscopic condensation of the net), etc. Two candidates for the quantum action principle are offered and the discussion of particle symmetries is included.