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Related Experiment Videos

Spontaneous symmetry breaking origin for the difference between time and space.

C Wetterich1

  • 1Institut für Theoretische Physik, Philosophenweg 16, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.

Physical Review Letters
|February 9, 2005
PubMed
Summary

Spontaneous symmetry breaking explains the difference between time and space. Spinor gravity, a fundamental theory without a metric, naturally generates quantum field theory and gravitational equations.

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Area of Science:

  • Theoretical physics
  • Quantum field theory
  • Gravitational physics

Background:

  • The fundamental asymmetry between time and space is typically postulated in physical theories.
  • The relationship between spacetime metric signature and Lorentz group structure is a key aspect of relativistic theories.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To propose spontaneous symmetry breaking as the origin of the time-space asymmetry.
  • To explore a higher symmetry framework encompassing arbitrary metric signatures.
  • To demonstrate the emergence of quantum field theory and gravity from a metric-free spinor theory.

Main Methods:

  • Developing a fundamental spinor theory without a pre-defined metric.
  • Investigating higher symmetry groups containing pseudo-orthogonal subgroups with arbitrary signatures.

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  • Analyzing the ground state properties of the proposed theory.

    • Main Results:

    • The asymmetry between time and space arises as a property of the ground state, not an a priori assumption.
    • A higher symmetry framework is presented that naturally accommodates various metric signatures.
    • The complex structure of quantum field theory and gravitational field equations emerge from the fundamental spinor theory.

    Conclusions:

    • Spontaneous symmetry breaking provides a natural explanation for the observed asymmetry between time and space.
    • Spinor gravity offers a unified framework for quantum field theory and gravity, originating from a metric-free foundation.