Reflections on the information paradigm in quantum and gravitational physics

Hoehn, Philipp (2017) Reflections on the information paradigm in quantum and gravitational physics. [Preprint]

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Official URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.06882

Abstract

We reflect on the information paradigm in quantum and gravitational physics and on how it may assist us in approaching quantum gravity. We begin by arguing, using a reconstruction of its formalism, that quantum theory can be regarded as a universal framework governing an observer's acquisition of information from physical systems taken as information carriers. We continue by observing that the structure of spacetime is encoded in the communication relations among observers and more generally the information flow in spacetime. Combining these insights with an information-theoretic Machian view, we argue that the quantum architecture of spacetime can operationally be viewed as a locally finite network of degrees of freedom exchanging information. An advantage -- and simultaneous limitation -- of an informational perspective is its quasi-universality, i.e. quasi-independence of the precise physical incarnation of the underlying degrees of freedom.
This suggests to exploit these informational insights to develop a largely microphysics independent top-down approach to quantum gravity to complement extant bottom-up approaches by closing the scale gap between the unknown Planck scale physics and the familiar physics of quantum (field) theory and general relativity systematically from two sides. While some ideas have been pronounced before in similar guise and others are speculative, the way they are strung together and justified is new and supports approaches attempting to derive emergent spacetime structures from correlations of quantum degrees of freedom.

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Preprint

Creators:

Creators	Email	ORCID
Hoehn, Philipp	A	0000-0001-7108-1184

Additional Information:

23 pages, invited contribution to the proceedings of DICE 2016, Castiglioncello

Keywords:

information paradigm, emergence of spacetime, quantum theory, general relativity, quantum gravity, Mach's principle, reconstruction of quantum theory, causality, information-theoretic approaches

Subjects:

Depositing User:

Dr. Philipp A Hoehn

Date Deposited:

22 Jun 2017 13:14

Last Modified:

22 Jun 2017 13:14

Item ID:

13146

Official URL:

https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.06882

Subjects:

Date:

22 June 2017

URI:

https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/13146

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Reflections on the information paradigm in quantum and gravitational physics

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