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As Below, So Before: `Synchronic' and `Diachronic' Conceptions of Spacetime Emergence

Crowther, Karen (2019) As Below, So Before: `Synchronic' and `Diachronic' Conceptions of Spacetime Emergence. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Typically, a less fundamental theory, or structure, emerging from a more fundamental one is an example of synchronic emergence. A model (and the physical state it describes) emerging from a prior model (state) upon which it nevertheless depends is an example of diachronic emergence. The case of spacetime emergent from quantum gravity and quantum cosmology challenges these two conceptions of emergence. Here, I propose two more-general conceptions of emergence, analogous to the synchronic and diachronic ones, but which are potentially applicable to the case of emergent spacetime: an inter-level, hierarchical conception, and an intra-level, `flat' conception. I then explore whether, and how, these ideas may be applicable in the case of several putative examples of relativistic spacetime emergent from the non-spatiotemporal structures described by different approaches to quantum gravity, and of spacetime emergent from a non-spatiotemporal `big bang' state according to different examples of quantum cosmology.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Crowther, Karenkaren.crowther@ifikk.uio.no0000-0003-1558-4814
Additional Information: Forthcoming in Synthese, Special Issue on Non-Standard Approaches to Emergence.
Keywords: spacetime, emergence, quantum gravity, cosmology, LQG, causal set theory, AdS/CFT, holography, diachronic emergence, synchronic emergence, geometrogenesis
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Cosmology
Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Gravity
General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
General Issues > Theory Change
Depositing User: Dr. Karen Crowther
Date Deposited: 29 Dec 2019 05:20
Last Modified: 29 Dec 2019 05:20
Item ID: 16754
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Cosmology
Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Gravity
General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
General Issues > Theory Change
Date: 2019
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/16754

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