Time and Spacetime: The Crystallizing Block Universe

Abstract

The nature of the future is completely different from the nature of the past. When quantum effects are significant, the future shows all the signs of quantum weirdness, including duality, uncertainty, and entanglement. With the passage of time, after the time-irreversible process of state-vector reduction has taken place, the past emerges, with the previous quantum uncertainty replaced by the classical certainty of definite particle identities and states. The present time is where this transition largely takes place, but the process does not take place uniformly: Evidence from delayed choice and related experiments shows that isolated patches of quantum indeterminacy remain, and that their transition from probability to certainty only takes place later. Thus, when quantum effects are significant, the picture of a classical Evolving Block Universe (`EBU') cedes place to one of a Crystallizing Block Universe (`CBU'), which reflects this quantum transition from indeterminacy to certainty, while nevertheless resembling the EBU on large enough scales.

25 Pages. 3 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Ultrasensitive Beam Deflection Measurement via Interferometric Weak Value Amplification
• Experimental realization of Wheeler's delayed-choice GedankenExperiment
• A Delayed Choice Quantum Eraser
• Physics in the Real Universe: Time and Spacetime
• Time-Dependent Quantum Weak Values: Decay Law for Post-Selected States

Cited by in corpus (6)

• On the limits of quantum theory: contextuality and the quantum-classical cut
• The Evolving Block Universe and the Meshing Together of Times
• From configuration to dynamics -- Emergence of Lorentz signature in classical field theory
• Time and Quantum Clocks: a review of recent developments
• Exploring Weak measurements within the Einstein-Dirac Cosmological framework
• Ricci Time in the Lemaitre-Tolman Model and the Block Universe