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Please also note that we do not accept unsolicited posts and we cannot review, or open new threads for, unsolicited articles or papers. Requests to review or post such materials will not be answered. If you have your own novel physics theory or model, which you would like to post for further discussion among then FQXi community, then please add them directly to the "Alternative Models of Reality" thread, or to the "Alternative Models of Cosmology" thread. Thank you.
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Previous Contests
What Is “Fundamental”
October 28, 2017 to January 22, 2018
Sponsored by the Fetzer Franklin Fund and The Peter & Patricia Gruber Foundation
read/discuss • winners
Wandering Towards a Goal
How can mindless mathematical laws give rise to aims and intention?
December 2, 2016 to March 3, 2017
Contest Partner: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Fund.
read/discuss • winners
Trick or Truth: The Mysterious Connection Between Physics and Mathematics
Contest Partners: Nanotronics Imaging, The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, and The John Templeton Foundation
Media Partner: Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
How Should Humanity Steer the Future?
January 9, 2014 - August 31, 2014
Contest Partners: Jaan Tallinn, The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, The John Templeton Foundation, and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
It From Bit or Bit From It
March 25 - June 28, 2013
Contest Partners: The Gruber Foundation, J. Templeton Foundation, and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
Questioning the Foundations
Which of Our Basic Physical Assumptions Are Wrong?
May 24 - August 31, 2012
Contest Partners: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, SubMeta, and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
Is Reality Digital or Analog?
November 2010 - February 2011
Contest Partners: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
What's Ultimately Possible in Physics?
May - October 2009
Contest Partners: Astrid and Bruce McWilliams
read/discuss • winners
The Nature of Time
August - December 2008
read/discuss • winners
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RECENT POSTS IN THIS TOPIC
Cristi Stoica: on 12/15/08 at 8:48am UTC, wrote Dear Dr. Vongehr, I loved the way you presented, in a lucid and profound...
Sascha Vongehr: on 12/1/08 at 11:03am UTC, wrote Essay Abstract Most once mysterious questions concerning the...
RECENT FORUM POSTS
Lorraine Ford: "In quantum events, energy is not always conserved: i.e. the numbers, for..." in Constructing a Theory of...
Georgina Woodward: "I think the definition of existence that is used will either allow or..." in Constructing a Theory of...
ariana pham: "Nice to read the information here. The content of this post is very useful..." in Ed Witten on the Nature...
Kane Williamson: "Time of social event is all in all something Egyptian Colloquial Arabic..." in Podcast Up: Interacting...
Kinal Kaur: "I just want to thanks to making such a wonderful website concept. Article..." in Quantum Replicants:...
Jennet Will: "Repkickz the best seller of the Replica. Buy off-white replica with us and..." in Fuzzballs v Black Holes
Andrew Jackson: "Brother is a renowned brand and it never frustrates its clients. The..." in Manipulating the Quantum...
RECENT ARTICLES
click titles to read articles
Constructing a Theory of Life
An all-encompassing framework of physics could help to explain the evolution of consciousness, intelligence, and free will.
Usurping Quantum Theory
The search is on for a fundamental framework that allows for even stranger links between particles than quantum theory—which could lead us to a theory of everything.
Fuzzballs v Black Holes
A radical theory replaces the cosmic crunchers with fuzzy quantum spheres, potentially solving the black-hole information paradox and explaining away the Big Bang and the origin of time.
Whose Physics Is It Anyway? Q&A with Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
Why physics and astronomy communities must take diversity issues seriously in order to do good science.
Why Time Might Not Be an Illusion
Einstein’s relativity pushes physicists towards a picture of the universe as a block, in which the past, present, and future all exist on the same footing; but maybe that shift in thinking has gone too far.
Cristi Stoica: on 12/15/08 at 8:48am UTC, wrote Dear Dr. Vongehr, I loved the way you presented, in a lucid and profound...
Sascha Vongehr: on 12/1/08 at 11:03am UTC, wrote Essay Abstract Most once mysterious questions concerning the...
RECENT FORUM POSTS
Lorraine Ford: "In quantum events, energy is not always conserved: i.e. the numbers, for..." in Constructing a Theory of...
Georgina Woodward: "I think the definition of existence that is used will either allow or..." in Constructing a Theory of...
ariana pham: "Nice to read the information here. The content of this post is very useful..." in Ed Witten on the Nature...
Kane Williamson: "Time of social event is all in all something Egyptian Colloquial Arabic..." in Podcast Up: Interacting...
Kinal Kaur: "I just want to thanks to making such a wonderful website concept. Article..." in Quantum Replicants:...
Jennet Will: "Repkickz the best seller of the Replica. Buy off-white replica with us and..." in Fuzzballs v Black Holes
Andrew Jackson: "Brother is a renowned brand and it never frustrates its clients. The..." in Manipulating the Quantum...
RECENT ARTICLES
click titles to read articles
Constructing a Theory of Life
An all-encompassing framework of physics could help to explain the evolution of consciousness, intelligence, and free will.
Usurping Quantum Theory
The search is on for a fundamental framework that allows for even stranger links between particles than quantum theory—which could lead us to a theory of everything.
Fuzzballs v Black Holes
A radical theory replaces the cosmic crunchers with fuzzy quantum spheres, potentially solving the black-hole information paradox and explaining away the Big Bang and the origin of time.
Whose Physics Is It Anyway? Q&A with Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
Why physics and astronomy communities must take diversity issues seriously in order to do good science.
Why Time Might Not Be an Illusion
Einstein’s relativity pushes physicists towards a picture of the universe as a block, in which the past, present, and future all exist on the same footing; but maybe that shift in thinking has gone too far.
FQXi FORUM
August 16, 2018
CATEGORY:
The Nature of Time Essay Contest (2008)
[back]
TOPIC: Relational Resolution of Time needs Many Worlds Interpretation with Small Probability Cutoff by Sascha Vongehr [refresh]
TOPIC: Relational Resolution of Time needs Many Worlds Interpretation with Small Probability Cutoff by Sascha Vongehr [refresh]
Essay Abstract
Most once mysterious questions concerning the concept of time have been resolved satisfactorily. While reviewing the progress, many well known issues are presented in refreshingly new ways: Zeno’s arrow paradox, time in relativity theory, etc. The still unresolved issue is a fully relational resolution from which time is emergent. The concept of time is closely linked with Many World Interpretations (MWI). Reviewing problems of quantum mechanics (QM), unitarity is stressed to be the most severe, because it gives rise to religious interpretations. Extremely low probability of after-live is not enough suppression, because the “dead fraction” does not count towards the statistical ensemble in a many minds MWI. The proper decoherence mechanism will cut off extremely low probabilities, resulting in zeros (impossibility). A simple physical system, e.g. decaying nuclei, shows that these problems are closely related with the issue of synchronization and emergence of time. In the same spirit as describing a quantum computation as put together from computations performed in parallel universes, similarly time is arising from the interference of MWI branches. While trying to let time emerge in the multiverse structure, the extremely low probability cutoff directs from the outset only towards extremely small corrections to QM that do not conflict with current observations.
Author Bio
Sascha Vongehr is employed as theoretical and experimental physicist at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Nanjing. He started to study philosophy in Germany, obtained his M. Sc. in string theory at the University of Sussex, and his Ph. D. from the University of Southern California, 2005. Current areas are cosmology and nanotechnology. He worked on two-time theory, helium clusters and neuroscience of the visual system (postdoc).
Download Essay PDF File
Most once mysterious questions concerning the concept of time have been resolved satisfactorily. While reviewing the progress, many well known issues are presented in refreshingly new ways: Zeno’s arrow paradox, time in relativity theory, etc. The still unresolved issue is a fully relational resolution from which time is emergent. The concept of time is closely linked with Many World Interpretations (MWI). Reviewing problems of quantum mechanics (QM), unitarity is stressed to be the most severe, because it gives rise to religious interpretations. Extremely low probability of after-live is not enough suppression, because the “dead fraction” does not count towards the statistical ensemble in a many minds MWI. The proper decoherence mechanism will cut off extremely low probabilities, resulting in zeros (impossibility). A simple physical system, e.g. decaying nuclei, shows that these problems are closely related with the issue of synchronization and emergence of time. In the same spirit as describing a quantum computation as put together from computations performed in parallel universes, similarly time is arising from the interference of MWI branches. While trying to let time emerge in the multiverse structure, the extremely low probability cutoff directs from the outset only towards extremely small corrections to QM that do not conflict with current observations.
Author Bio
Sascha Vongehr is employed as theoretical and experimental physicist at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Nanjing. He started to study philosophy in Germany, obtained his M. Sc. in string theory at the University of Sussex, and his Ph. D. from the University of Southern California, 2005. Current areas are cosmology and nanotechnology. He worked on two-time theory, helium clusters and neuroscience of the visual system (postdoc).
Download Essay PDF File
Dear Dr. Vongehr,
I loved the way you presented, in a lucid and profound manner, the problems related to the time, block time, and the many worlds interpretation. Interesting the small probability cutoff mechanism via decoherence.
Best wishes,
Cristi Stoica
Flowing with a Frozen River
I loved the way you presented, in a lucid and profound manner, the problems related to the time, block time, and the many worlds interpretation. Interesting the small probability cutoff mechanism via decoherence.
Best wishes,
Cristi Stoica
Flowing with a Frozen River
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