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  • Access by Xinjiang University

Space-Time Code. II

David Finkelstein*

  • Belfer Graduate School of Science, Yeshiva University, New York, New York 10033

  • *Young Men's Philanthropic League Professor of Physics. Supported in part by the National Science Foundation.

Phys. Rev. D 5, 320 – Published 15 January, 1972

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.5.320

Abstract

Quantum concepts can be applied to space-time processes to make a quantum (q) theory that is free of the possibility of divergencies inherent in classical continuum theories, yet causal, Lorentz-invariant, and asymptotically Poincaré-invariant for large times. A general technique, algebraic quantization, is provided for going from classical (c) paradigms, typically discrete logical structures, to q analogs. Applied to the two-dimensional c checker-board, algebraic quantization gives a q theory of time and space asymptotic to the four-dimensional Minkowski c theory in the limit of large time. Applied to the simplest dynamics on such a checkerboard, a piece that makes the same move again and again, algebraic quantization gives a q dynamics asymptotic to a massless spin-½ two-component dynamics in the same limit. The quantum of time, if it exists, must have spin ½. Some features of general relativity such as curvature seem plausible consequences of a quantum theory of space-time processes.

References (7)

  1. D. Finkelstein, Phys. Rev. 184, 1261 (1969) in Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, edited by R. S. Cohen, Vol. 4 (1968)
  2. Milič Čapek, Philosophical Impact of Contemporary Physics (Van Nostrand, New York, 1961), Chap. 13 H. Snyder, Phys. Rev. 79, 38 (1947) C. F. von Weizsäcker, Naturwiss. 20, 545 (1955) E. J. Zimmerman, Am. J. Phys. 30, 97 (1962) R. Giles and H. Kummer, Queens University, Kingston Report No. 1970-12 (unpublished) C. Piron, Helv. Phys. Acta 42, 330 (1969)
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  7. ([1]) ([1]) D. Finkelstein, in Fundamental Interactions at High Energy I, based on the proceedings of the 1969 Coral Gables Conference on Fundamental Interactions at High Energy, edited by T. Gudehus, G. Kaiser, and A. Perlmutter (Gordon and Breach, New York, 1969), p. 324 ([1])

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