Time Remains

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel approach to quantum gravity where duration is relative but temporal succession is absolute, allowing for a genuinely dynamical theory of time in quantum gravity.

Contribution

It introduces a framework that avoids the problem of time by treating duration as relative and succession as absolute, enabling a dynamical conception of time.

Findings

Avoids the problem of time in quantum gravity

Proposes a theory with absolute temporal succession

Maintains a dynamical notion of time in quantum gravity

Abstract

On one popular view, the general covariance of gravity implies that change is relational in a strong sense, such that all it is for a physical degree of freedom to change is for it to vary with regard to a second physical degree of freedom. At a quantum level, this view of "change as relative variation" leads to a "fundamentally timeless" formalism for quantum gravity. Here, we will show how one may avoid this acute `problem of time'. Under our view, duration is still regarded as relative, but temporal succession is taken to be absolute. Following our approach, which is presented in more formal terms in arXiv:1303.7139, it is possible to conceive of a genuinely dynamical theory of quantum gravity within which time, in a substantive sense, remains.