What if Time Really Exists?
| dc.creator | Carroll, Sean M. | |
| dc.date | 2008-11-23 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-07T10:20:35Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-07-07T10:20:35Z | |
| dc.description | Despite the obvious utility of the concept, it has often been argued that time does not exist. I take the opposite perspective: let's imagine that time does exist, and the universe is described by a quantum state obeying ordinary time-dependent quantum mechanics. Reconciling this simple picture with the known facts about our universe turns out to be a non-trivial task, but by taking it seriously we can infer deep facts about the fundamental nature of reality. The arrow of time finds a plausible explanation in a "Heraclitean universe," described by a quantum state eternally evolving in an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space. | |
| dc.description | Submission to the Foundational Questions Institute Essay Competition on "The Nature of Time." | |
| dc.identifier | https://arxiv.org/abs/0811.3772 | |
| dc.identifier | http://arxiv.org/abs/0811.3772 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/174893 | |
| dc.subject | General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology | |
| dc.subject | High Energy Physics - Theory | |
| dc.title | What if Time Really Exists? | |
| dc.type | text |