Schrödinger's cat and the clock: lessons for quantum gravity

DOI10.1088/0264-9381/20/24/009MaRDI QIDQ4453757zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Robert Oeckl

Publication date 7 March 2004

Published in Classical and Quantum Gravity (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0306007

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Quantization of the gravitational field (83C45)

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.

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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
• States on timelike hypersurfaces in quantum field theory
• Diffeomorphisms from finite triangulations and absence of `local' degrees of freedom
• Spin‐Spacetime Censorship
• Compositional quantum field theory: An axiomatic presentation
• Entanglement entropy between virtual and real excitations in quantum electrodynamics

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