Published May 2007 | Version v1
Journal article

Effective Topology from Spacetime Tomography

  • 1. Imperial College, Theoretical Physics Group Blackett Laboratory, London SW7 2BZ (United Kingdom)

Description

We recover the effective topology of spacetime using the notion of record from the decoherent histories approach to Quantum Theory. From a series of (gedanken) experiments, we obtain the set of possible events, grouped into sub-sets that corresponds to histories, but with no other information such as (causal) order or any notion of proximity. This corresponds to tomography of the 'effective' spacetime, that is done in an operational way. Making certain assumptions about these records, and using the existence of upper bound in the speed of transfer of matter and information, we recover the full partial (causal) order up to certain ambiguities. The partially ordered set of events corresponds to an 'effective' causal set which is a discretized version of spacetime with the causal relation as defining feature. We conclude with a derivation of the topology of this effective discretized spacetime

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Journal of Physics. Conference Series (Online)
Journal Volume
68
Journal Issue
1
Journal Page Range
p. 012028
ISSN
1742-6596

Conference

Title
12. conference on recent developments in gravity
Acronym
NEB XII
Dates
29 Jun - 2 Jul 2006
Place
Nafplio (Greece)

INIS

Country of Publication
United Kingdom
Country of Input or Organization
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
INIS RN
38080515
Subject category
S72: PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS;
Resource subtype / Literary indicator
Conference
Descriptors DEI
CAUSALITY; COSMOLOGY; QUANTUM DECOHERENCE; SPACE-TIME; TOMOGRAPHY; TOPOLOGY; VELOCITY
Descriptors DEC
DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUES; MATHEMATICS