What if Time Really Exists?

TL;DR

This paper explores the hypothesis that time exists and examines its implications for the fundamental nature of reality, proposing that an evolving quantum universe can explain the arrow of time.

Contribution

It presents a novel perspective that treats time as real and fundamental, offering a new explanation for the arrow of time within quantum mechanics.

Findings

Time's existence can be coherently integrated into quantum mechanics.

The arrow of time is explained by an eternally evolving quantum state.

A Heraclitean universe model provides a plausible framework for time's directionality.

Abstract

Despite the obvious utility of the concept, it has often been argued that time does not exist. I take the opposite perspective: let's imagine that time does exist, and the universe is described by a quantum state obeying ordinary time-dependent quantum mechanics. Reconciling this simple picture with the known facts about our universe turns out to be a non-trivial task, but by taking it seriously we can infer deep facts about the fundamental nature of reality. The arrow of time finds a plausible explanation in a "Heraclitean universe," described by a quantum state eternally evolving in an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space.