The case of the vanishing wavefunction.
Spacetime singularities are often held to be pathologies which need to be resolved, and researchers working on the foundations of physics often pin their hopes on the elusive quantum theory of gravity to offer a way to resolve singularities. What is less agreed upon is what such a resolution would a...
| Publicado en: | Studies in History & Philosophy of Science Part A Vol. 96; pp. 135 - 141 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Elsevier B.V.
Dec2022
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=160333872&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 160333872 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00393681 HPS jtl: Studies in History & Philosophy of Science Part A issn: 00393681 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2022 vid: 96 pid: 2410 pub: Elsevier B.V. artinfo: ui: 160333872 10.1016/j.shpsa.2022.09.015 ppf: 135 ppct: 6 formats: tig: atl: The case of the vanishing wavefunction. aug: au: Warrier, Niranjana affil: University of Illinois at Chicago, 601 S Morgan St, Chicago, IL 60607, USA su: Big bang theory Quantum cosmology Quantum theory Quantum gravity Spacetime sug: subj: Big bang theory Quantum cosmology Quantum theory Quantum gravity Spacetime keyword: Big bang Minisuperspace models Singularity resolution ab: Spacetime singularities are often held to be pathologies which need to be resolved, and researchers working on the foundations of physics often pin their hopes on the elusive quantum theory of gravity to offer a way to resolve singularities. What is less agreed upon is what such a resolution would amount to: what criteria would a theory of quantum gravity have to fulfill to resolve spacetime singularities? In this paper, I critically analyze one criterion proposed within canonical quantum cosmology for the avoidance of the big bang singularity, to draw philosophical lessons about how to interpret such criteria. The criterion, when applied to symmetry-reduced cosmological models, claims to avoid the big bang by making the wavefunction of the universe vanish 'at' the singularity. I ask whether it works as intended, and even if it does, whether avoiding the singularity is the same as resolving the singularity. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y dt: @attributes: year: 2022 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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