Bonn 2020 – scientific programme

The DPG Spring Meeting in Bonn had to be cancelled! Read more ...

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

AGPhil: Arbeitsgruppe Philosophie der Physik

AGPhil 11: General Topics II

AGPhil 11.1: Talk

Friday, April 3, 2020, 14:00–14:30, H-HS III

The fundamental role of the proper time parameter in general relativity and in quantum mechanics — •René Friedrich — Strasbourg

Einstein's relativity provides us with some hints about the nature of time which have not been fully taken into account in quantum gravity yet. The phenomenon of time dilation is replacing Newton's absolute time with a twofold, complementary time concept, consisting of the observer's coordinate time after time dilation and the observed object's proper time before time dilation.

Although many authors are highlighting the importance of proper time within GR, theories of quantum gravity are usually starting off with the assumption of a relative spacetime manifold. However, for fundamental questions about the nature of time we should not refer to coordinate time but to the more fundamental parameter of proper time. Following this approach, the universe of quantum gravity is composed of solipsistic worldlines which are parameterized by their respective proper time, including lightlike worldlines of fields whose length is zero.

The definition of proper time: "The time measured by a clock following a given particle" provides the particle with a well-defined physical property: its aging - in general relativity as well as in quantum mechanics. It will be shown that, in a first step, time is produced locally by the rest energy of mass particles in the form of proper time, and that only in a second step time is measured and synchronized by observers in the form of coordinate time.