Condensed matter physics and the nature of spacetime

Abstract

This essay considers the prospects of modeling spacetime as a phenomenon that emerges in the low-energy limit of a quantum liquid. It evaluates three examples of spacetime analogues in condensed matter systems that have appeared in the recent physics literature, indicating the extent to which they are viable, and considers what they suggest about the nature of spacetime.

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2008

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Jonathan Bain
New York University

Citations of this work

The emergence of spacetime in condensed matter approaches to quantum gravity.Jonathan Bain - 2013 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 44 (3):338-345.
Quantum gravity.Steven Weinstein - 2008 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

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References found in this work

Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell.A. Zee - 2010 - Princeton University Press.
On the emergence of time in quantum gravity.Jeremy Butterfield & Chris Isham - 1999 - In The Arguments of Time. Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press. pp. 111--168.
Emergence, not supervenience.Paul W. Humphreys - 1997 - Philosophy of Science Supplement 64 (4):337-45.
Effective Field Theories, Reductionism and Scientific Explanation.Stephan Hartmann - 2001 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 32 (2):267-304.

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