Operational verification of the existence of a spacetime manifold

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Paunkovic, Nikola, Vojinovic, Marko
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2022
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author Paunkovic, Nikola
Vojinovic, Marko
author_facet Paunkovic, Nikola
Vojinovic, Marko
contents We argue that there exists an operational way to establish the observability of the notions of space and time. Specifically, we propose a theory-independent protocol for a gedanken-experiment, whose outcome is a signal establishing the observability of the spacetime manifold, without a priori assuming its existence. The experimental signal contains the information about the dimension and the topology of spacetime (with the currently achievable precision), and establishes its manifold structure, while respecting its underlying diffeomorphism symmetry. We also introduce and discuss appropriate criteria for the concept of emergence of spacetime, which any tentative theoretical model of physics must satisfy in order to claim that spacetime does emerge from some more fundamental concepts.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2209_04783
institution arXiv
publishDate 2022
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Operational verification of the existence of a spacetime manifold
Paunkovic, Nikola
Vojinovic, Marko
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Quantum Physics
We argue that there exists an operational way to establish the observability of the notions of space and time. Specifically, we propose a theory-independent protocol for a gedanken-experiment, whose outcome is a signal establishing the observability of the spacetime manifold, without a priori assuming its existence. The experimental signal contains the information about the dimension and the topology of spacetime (with the currently achievable precision), and establishes its manifold structure, while respecting its underlying diffeomorphism symmetry. We also introduce and discuss appropriate criteria for the concept of emergence of spacetime, which any tentative theoretical model of physics must satisfy in order to claim that spacetime does emerge from some more fundamental concepts.
title Operational verification of the existence of a spacetime manifold
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.04783