Cosmological time and the constants of nature

Abstract

We propose that cosmological time is {\it effectively} the conjugate of the constants of nature. Different definitions of time arise, with the most relevant related to the constant controlling the dynamics in each epoch. The Hamiltonian constraint then becomes a Schrodinger equation. In the connection representation, it is solved by monochromatic plane waves moving in a space generalizing the Chern-Simons functional. Normalizable superpositions exist and for factorizable coherent states we recover the classical limit and a seamless handover between potentially disparate times. There is also a rich structure of alternative states, including entangled constants, opening up the doors to new phenomenology.

References in corpus (4)

• Lectures on the Cosmological Constant Problem
• Thermal time and the Tolman-Ehrenfest effect: temperature as the "speed of time"
• Singularity resolution depends on the clock
• The Autodidactic Universe

Cited by in corpus (21)

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• Black hole singularity resolution in unimodular gravity from unitarity
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• Relaxation of first-class constraints and the quantization of gauge theories: from "matter without matter" to the reappearance of time in quantum gravity
• Semiclassical limit problems with concurrent use of several clocks in quantum cosmology
• Unimodular Hartle-Hawking wave packets and their probability interpretation
• Unitary and Vilenkin's wave functions
• Lower bound on the cosmological constant from the classicality of the Early Universe
• Role of Future SNIa Data from Rubin LSST in Reinvestigating Cosmological Models
• Vortices, topology and time
• Linking the Baum-Hawking-Coleman Mechanism with Unimodular Gravity and Vilenkin's Probability Flux
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• Unimodular Proca Theory: Breaking the U(1) gauge symmetry of unimodular gravity via a mass term
• A theory of time based on wavefunction collapse
• Running Einstein Constant and a Possible Vacuum State of the Universe
• Unimodular time in JT gravity: a holographic clock
• Hidden Symmetries in Gravity : Black holes and other minisuperspaces