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arXiv:2309.00994 · Foundations of Physics

Synchronization and Fundamental Time: A Connection Between Relativity and Quantum Mechanics

Matteo Luca Ruggiero

Published Sep 15, 2023• 1 citation
arXivHTMLPDF
DOI
10.1007/s10701-023-00724-8

Related papers

LTST proposes a shift from global time as a fundamental background to local times as the primary structure of physical reality. In this framework, observation is an act of synchronization, physical objects are stable attractors, and global time is the scale of the observer.

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What if global time is not a fundamental axis of the Universe, but an emergent scale of the observer? This paper presents LTST — Local Time Synchronization Theory. The central claim of LTST is that the primary level of physical reality is not space, global time, or particles, but local times of processes and the structure of their synchronization. Physical objects are interpreted as stable attractors of local times, space as a secondary structure of stable relations between such attractors, and energy as a measure of reconfiguration between synchronization regimes. The key idea is that the Universe does not possess an external clock already synchronized with the observer. What is usually called global time is interpreted in LTST as the scale of a high-level observer-attractor. Observation is not treated as a passive registration of a pre-existing reality, but as a physical act of synchronization that turns a possible configuration into a manifested event. LTST does not reject the existing mathematical apparatus of physics. The equations of mechanics, electrodynamics, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, and cosmology continue to work within their domains of applicability. What changes is their ontological interpretation: after introducing local time, these equations can be read not only as descriptions of objects moving in a given space-time, but also as projections of deeper synchronization processes. This approach offers a different perspective on quantum uncertainty, the role of the observer, scale irreducibility, and cosmological difficulties. Instead of relying on quantum mysticism, persistent paradoxes, or premature explanatory entities, LTST proposes to understand physical reality as the manifestation of possible configurations through the synchronization of local times.

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The security of keys in quantum cryptography is based on fundamental quantum mechanical exclusions (the exclusion of cloning and copying of nonorthogonal quantum states. The physical type of a quantum object that carries information (photon, electron, atom, etc.) is insignificant; only its state vector is important. In relativistic quantum cryptography for open space, both the time of the information carrier (photon that propagates with the extremely allowable velocity in a vacuum) and its quantum state are of fundamental importance. Joint fundamental constraints that are dictated by both special relativity and quantum mechanics on the discrimination of nonorthogonal quantum states allow one to formulate fundamentally new key distribution protocols that are stable against any attacks on a key and guarantee the security of keys for a nonstrictly single-photon source and any losses in the communication channel. Although this protocol is a real-time protocol in the Minkowski space-time, where the attack to the communication channel is detected by the delay of eavesdropper measurement results, the protocol does not require clock synchronization on the transmitter and receiver sides .

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Abstract The physical status of time remains one of the most persistent open questions in fundamental physics. In quantum mechanics, time appears as an external parameter governing evolution but not as an observable, while in general relativity it is embedded in the geometric structure of spacetime and becomes observer-dependent. Despite their empirical success, neither framework explains the physical origin of time or its singular role among fundamental quantities. In this work, we propose an emergent interpretation of physical time grounded in quantum phase. Phase is treated as a pre-temporal structural feature of quantum systems, rather than as a quantity defined with respect to an underlying temporal parameter. Energy is interpreted as a relational characterisation of regularities in phase structure, and proper time emerges only in contexts where phase accumulation can be compared and synchronised between interacting systems. An isolated quantum system may possess phase, but it does not possess physical time in the operational sense; time arises only through relational compatibility. This approach does not introduce new fundamental dynamics nor posit a physical mechanism responsible for the generation of time. Instead, it establishes an ontological hierarchy in which phase is fundamental, energy is relational, and time is a phenomenological quantity that emerges from stable conditions of synchronisation. Within this framework, classical reality corresponds to domains of temporal compatibility, while loss of compatibility underlies the emergence of horizons and geometric structure. By reframing time as an emergent relational phenomenon rooted in quantum phase, this work provides a coherent interpretative framework in which the absence of a time operator in quantum mechanics and the difficulty of quantising time and gravity are understood as consequences of their non-fundamental status, rather than as shortcomings of existing formalisms.

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RELATIVITY AND QUANTUM MECHANICS

Routledge eBooks•Feb 4, 2014•0 citations
What if global time is not a fundamental axis of the Universe, but an emergent scale of the observer? This paper presents LTST — Local Time Synchronization Theory. The central claim of LTST is that the primary level of physical reality is not space, global time, or particles, but local times of processes and the structure of their synchronization. Physical objects are interpreted as stable attractors of local times, space as a secondary structure of stable relations between such attractors, and energy as a measure of reconfiguration between synchronization regimes. The key idea is that the Universe does not possess an external clock already synchronized with the observer. What is usually called global time is interpreted in LTST as the scale of a high-level observer-attractor. Observation is not treated as a passive registration of a pre-existing reality, but as a physical act of synchronization that turns a possible configuration into a manifested event. LTST does not reject the existing mathematical apparatus of physics. The equations of mechanics, electrodynamics, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, and cosmology continue to work within their domains of applicability. What changes is their ontological interpretation: after introducing local time, these equations can be read not only as descriptions of objects moving in a given space-time, but also as projections of deeper synchronization processes. This approach offers a different perspective on quantum uncertainty, the role of the observer, scale irreducibility, and cosmological difficulties. Instead of relying on quantum mysticism, persistent paradoxes, or premature explanatory entities, LTST proposes to understand physical reality as the manifestation of possible configurations through the synchronization of local times.
The security of keys in quantum cryptography is based on fundamental quantum mechanical exclusions (the exclusion of cloning and copying of nonorthogonal quantum states. The physical type of a quantum object that carries information (photon, electron, atom, etc.) is insignificant; only its state vector is important. In relativistic quantum cryptography for open space, both the time of the information carrier (photon that propagates with the extremely allowable velocity in a vacuum) and its quantum state are of fundamental importance. Joint fundamental constraints that are dictated by both special relativity and quantum mechanics on the discrimination of nonorthogonal quantum states allow one to formulate fundamentally new key distribution protocols that are stable against any attacks on a key and guarantee the security of keys for a nonstrictly single-photon source and any losses in the communication channel. Although this protocol is a real-time protocol in the Minkowski space-time, where the attack to the communication channel is detected by the delay of eavesdropper measurement results, the protocol does not require clock synchronization on the transmitter and receiver sides .
Abstract The physical status of time remains one of the most persistent open questions in fundamental physics. In quantum mechanics, time appears as an external parameter governing evolution but not as an observable, while in general relativity it is embedded in the geometric structure of spacetime and becomes observer-dependent. Despite their empirical success, neither framework explains the physical origin of time or its singular role among fundamental quantities. In this work, we propose an emergent interpretation of physical time grounded in quantum phase. Phase is treated as a pre-temporal structural feature of quantum systems, rather than as a quantity defined with respect to an underlying temporal parameter. Energy is interpreted as a relational characterisation of regularities in phase structure, and proper time emerges only in contexts where phase accumulation can be compared and synchronised between interacting systems. An isolated quantum system may possess phase, but it does not possess physical time in the operational sense; time arises only through relational compatibility. This approach does not introduce new fundamental dynamics nor posit a physical mechanism responsible for the generation of time. Instead, it establishes an ontological hierarchy in which phase is fundamental, energy is relational, and time is a phenomenological quantity that emerges from stable conditions of synchronisation. Within this framework, classical reality corresponds to domains of temporal compatibility, while loss of compatibility underlies the emergence of horizons and geometric structure. By reframing time as an emergent relational phenomenon rooted in quantum phase, this work provides a coherent interpretative framework in which the absence of a time operator in quantum mechanics and the difficulty of quantising time and gravity are understood as consequences of their non-fundamental status, rather than as shortcomings of existing formalisms.