Loop quantum gravity is a theoretical framework which aims to quantize general relativity. One of the unique aspects of this theory is that it imposes a discrete structure on space-time. One toy model of loop quantum gravity is loop quantum cosmology, which maintains the idea of a discrete spatial structure...
Loop quantum gravity is a framework for quantizing general relativity which imposes a discrete structure on space. In exploring the structure of loop quantum gravity, researchers have investigated loop quantum cosmology, a toy model with reduced degrees of freedom while maintaining a discrete space. Polymer quantum mechanics is a framework...
Solutions to Einstein's equations are usually found by considering ideal, simplified models. However, if the real world always matched ideal physics models, then farmers would milk black and white spheres. To combat this, Regge calculus was developed as a numerical approximation scheme for general relativity. In Regge calculus curved manifolds...
Different models show the effects of environmental decoherence on a quantum system
due to various environments of interest. One important quantity within these models is
the decoherence time, which tells us how quickly environments wash away the coherence of
local measurements. We can describe this effect as the quantum system...
Standard quantum mechanics makes foundational assumptions to describe the measurement process. Upon interaction with a “classical measurement apparatus”, a quantum system is subjected to postulated “state collapse” dynamics. We show that framing measurement around state collapse and ill-defined classical observers leads to interpretational issues, and artificially limits the scope of...
I had to write again. My research lay in science, and it was a science of three parts. The first part made a careful, introductory chapter, begged for by things that were lacking. It summarizes the von Neumann measurement model, derived from the Stern-Gerlach experiment, and it explains how weak...
In this thesis, we explore a general method for constructing path sums in a discrete spacetime using a jump amplitude matrix. This is accomplished by deriving a composition law that relates jump amplitudes to the propagator. Then properties of causal sets are used to average this relationship over sprinklings. This...
The standard interpretation of quantum mechanics (known as the Copenhagen interpretation) divides the world into quantum phenomena and classical observers that perform measurements upon the phenomena. This provides a quite functional framework for calculating probabilities of measurement outcomes, but it lacks the generality necessary for such things as retrodiction, and...