Schroedinger's cat and the clock: Lessons for quantum gravity
| dc.creator | Oeckl, Robert | |
| dc.date | 2003-06-02 | |
| dc.date | 2003-10-15 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-07T03:27:52Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-07-07T03:27:52Z | |
| dc.description | 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. | |
| dc.description | 12 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX + AMS + eps; introduction, section numbers and two references added | |
| dc.identifier | https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0306007 | |
| dc.identifier | http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0306007 | |
| dc.identifier | Class.Quant.Grav. 20 (2003) 5371-5380 | |
| dc.identifier | doi:10.1088/0264-9381/20/24/009 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/34608 | |
| dc.subject | General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology | |
| dc.subject | High Energy Physics - Theory | |
| dc.subject | Quantum Physics | |
| dc.title | Schroedinger's cat and the clock: Lessons for quantum gravity | |
| dc.type | text |