Schrödinger's cat and the clock: lessons for quantum gravity
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Publication:4453757
DOI10.1088/0264-9381/20/24/009zbMATH Open1170.83383arXivgr-qc/0306007OpenAlexW2003912762WikidataQ56139281 ScholiaQ56139281MaRDI QIDQ4453757FDOQ4453757
Publication date: 7 March 2004
Published in: Classical and Quantum Gravity (Search for Journal in Brave)
Abstract: I review basic principles of the quantum mechanical measurement process in view of their implications for a quantum theory of general relativity. It turns out that a clock as an external classical device associated with the observer plays an essential role. This leads me to postulate a ``principle of the integrity of the observer. It essentially requires the observer to be part of a classical domain connected throughout the measurement process. Mathematically this naturally leads to a formulation of quantum mechanics as a kind of topological quantum field theory. Significantly, quantities with a direct interpretation in terms of a measurement process are associated only with amplitudes for connected boundaries of compact regions of space-time. I discuss some implications of my proposal such as in-out duality for states, delocalization of the ``collapse of the wave function and locality of the description. Differences to existing approaches to quantum gravity are also highlighted.
Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0306007
Cited In (10)
- Locality and general vacua in quantum field theory
- The perturbative Regge-calculus regime of loop quantum gravity
- Studium Generale Quantenphysik
- Clock and category: Is quantum gravity algebraic?
- A positive formalism for quantum theory in the general boundary formulation
- Spin‐Spacetime Censorship
- States on timelike hypersurfaces in quantum field theory
- Diffeomorphisms from finite triangulations and absence of `local' degrees of freedom
- Compositional quantum field theory: An axiomatic presentation
- Entanglement entropy between virtual and real excitations in quantum electrodynamics
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