Elementary cycles of time

TL;DR

This paper proposes that elementary particles exhibit quantum time recurrences, allowing a decomposition of time flow into elementary cycles, which leads to a relational interpretation of relativistic time and offers a unified view of fundamental physics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel perspective where particles act as reference clocks with high precision, providing a relational framework for understanding relativistic time.

Findings

Particles have quantum recurrences in time.

Time can be decomposed into elementary cycles.

Particles serve as highly accurate reference clocks.

Abstract

Elementary particles, i.e. the basic constituents of nature, are characterized by quantum recurrences in time. The flow of time of every physical system can be therefore decomposed in elementary cycles of time. This allows us to enforce the local nature of relativistic time, yielding interesting unified descriptions of fundamental aspects of modern physics, as shown in recent publications and reviewed in [arXiv:1305.2802]. Every particle can be regarded as a reference clock with time resolution of the order of its Compton time, typically many orders of magnitude more accurate than the atomic clocks. Here we summarize basic conceptual aspects of the resulting relational interpretation of the relativistic time flow.