Quantum Machian time in toy models of gravity

DOI10.1088/0264-9381/26/8/085015MaRDI QIDQ3627535zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Sean Gryb

Publication date 12 May 2009

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

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/0810.4152

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Path integrals in quantum mechanics (81S40) Quantization of the gravitational field (83C45) Relativistic gravitational theories other than Einstein's, including asymmetric field theories (83D05)

Abstract: General Relativity on closed spatial topologies can be derived, using a technique called "best-matching", as an evolving 3-geometry subject to constraints. These constraints can be thought of as a way of imposing temporal and spatial relationalism. The same type of constraints can be used in non-relativistic particle models to produce relational theories that suffer from the same Problem of Time as that encountered in General Relativity. As a result, these simple toy models are well suited for studying the Problem of Time in quantum gravity. In this paper, a version of these particle models is studied where we "best-match" the time translational invariance of the theory. Using insights gained from this procedure, we can move back and forth between absolute and relational time by changing the way in which the relational fields are varied. We then proceed to quantize this theory using Dirac and path integral quantizations. We discover that one of the constraints of the theory, which we call the Mach constraint, is responsible for removing the dependence of the theory on a background structure. It is this Mach constraint that is responsible for making the theory temporally relational. Because of the deep relationship between these models and General Relativity, this work may shed new light on the Problem of Time in quantum gravity and how one might expect time to emerge on quantum subsystems of the universe.

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Cited in

(6)

• Minisuperspace model of Machian resolution of problem of time. I. Isotropic case
• Problem of time in quantum gravity
• Emergent semiclassical time in quantum gravity: I. Mechanical models
• Shape space methods for quantum cosmological triangleland
• Relational quadrilateralland. I: The classical theory
• Wormholes generated by a density-gradient dependent equation of state in \(f(\mathfrak{R}, \mathfrak{L_m}, T)\) gravity

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