Physical implications of a fundamental period of time

TL;DR

This paper explores the concept of time as a fundamental process with a minimal period, deriving bounds on its size and discussing implications for physical systems and their dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a model where time is a fundamental process with a minimal period and derives an upper bound on this period from experimental constraints.

Findings

The fundamental period of time must be less than 10^{-33} seconds.

A fundamental time process interacts with physical systems consistently if its period is sufficiently small.

Experimental bounds limit the possible size of the fundamental time period.

Abstract

If time is described by a fundamental process rather than a coordinate, it interacts with any physical system that evolves in time. The resulting dynamics is shown here to be consistent provided the fundamental period of the time system is sufficiently small. A strong upper bound T_C < 10^{-33}s of the fundamental period of time, several orders of magnitude below any direct time measurement, is obtained from bounds on dynamical variations of the period of a system evolving in time.