Time and the Higgs (with apologies to J. B. Priestley)

TL;DR

This paper proposes a discrete space-time model with inbuilt indeterminacy, where time emerges from particle collisions called chronons, naturally leading to quantum uncertainty and linking to the Higgs boson as an agent of time's emergence.

Contribution

It introduces a Lorentz-invariant discrete space-time model with proper-time quantization and indeterminacy, connecting the emergence of time to the Higgs boson.

Findings

Discrete space-time with inbuilt indeterminacy

Proper-time intervals are discrete and emergent

Heisenberg's uncertainty principle arises naturally

Abstract

A model of discrete space-time is presented which is, in a sense, both Lorentz invariant and has no restriction on the relative velocity between particles (except v < c). The space-time has an inbuilt indeterminacy. Published originally as 'A quantisation of time', J. Phys. A: Math. Gen., 10, 2115, 1977; identical to the original, apart from one or two minor corrections, and some simplification towards the end of Section 6. The paper presents a discrete model of time, in which the latter comprises a succession of instants which are identified as collisions with particles called chronons. Proper-time intervals are discrete; the structure of space-time is given by a radar map and has an inbuilt indeterminacy, which leads naturally to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. If I were writing this paper today I would identify the chronon with the virtual Higgs boson. Without the latter all particles would be massless and would follow null paths; there would be no such thing as proper time. Time is an emergent phenomenon, and the Higgs boson is the agent of that emergence.