Sep 22 – 25, 2019
Turin
Europe/Rome timezone

Superpositions of causal orders in a timeless universe

Sep 25, 2019, 12:10 PM
45m
Turin

Turin

Monday, 23 Sept. * Aula Magna, Dip. di Scienze della Vita e Biologia dei Sistemi, Via Accademia Albertina, 13 * Tuesday, 24 Sept.- Wednesday, 25 Sept. * Aula Magna, Palazzo del Rettorato, Via Verdi, 8 * @Università degli Studi di Torino

Speaker

Prof. Vlatko Vedral (University of Oxford, ISI, National University of Singapore)

Description

I will first review the timeless Page-Wootters picture of the quantum universe in which there is no overall dynamics, but where the states of quantum fields evolve relative to the quantum states of the underlying space. I will then introduce the concept of superposing different causal orders – a notion that could be naturally motivated within some approaches to quantum gravity – and ask if and how this phenomenon could be incorporated within the Page-Wootters formalism. I hope to finish by speculating about some possible experimental implications.

Presentation materials