As Below, So Before: `Synchronic' and `Diachronic' Conceptions of Spacetime Emergence

TL;DR

This paper introduces new hierarchical and intra-level conceptions of emergence to better understand how spacetime might emerge from quantum gravity and cosmology, challenging traditional views.

Contribution

It proposes two novel, more general conceptions of emergence applicable to spacetime, extending beyond traditional synchronic and diachronic ideas.

Findings

Applicability of new emergence conceptions to quantum gravity models

Analysis of spacetime emergence from non-spatiotemporal structures

Insights into quantum cosmology scenarios

Abstract

Typically, a less fundamental theory, or structure, emerging from a more fundamental one is an example of synchronic emergence. A model (and the physical state it describes) emerging from a prior model (state) upon which it nevertheless depends is an example of diachronic emergence. The case of spacetime emergent from quantum gravity and quantum cosmology challenges these two conceptions of emergence. Here, I propose two more-general conceptions of emergence, analogous to the synchronic and diachronic ones, but which are potentially applicable to the case of emergent spacetime: an inter-level, hierarchical conception, and an intra-level, `flat' conception. I then explore whether, and how, these ideas may be applicable in the case of several putative examples of relativistic spacetime emergent from the non-spatiotemporal structures described by different approaches to quantum gravity, and of spacetime emergent from a non-spatiotemporal `big bang' state according to different examples of quantum cosmology.