Emergence of Time from the Vacuum Wavefunction

H. D. Zeh

Shigeru Akabane

Abstract We develop and apply the Yugen wavefunction framework, a phase-geometric reformulation of quantum theory in which the vacuum is treated as an active medium with intrinsic stiffness set by the Planck scale. In this approach, physical fields and particles emerge from internal phase geometry rather than from fundamental point-like interactions. By identifying the amplitude of the Yugen wavefunction with the Planck energy, the Planck scale becomes a physical parameter governing vacuum rigidity and nonlinear phase response. We present explicit numerical predictions across atomic, particle, and mesoscopic regimes. In the atomic sector, the framework predicts small but systematic nonlinear deviations in isotope-shift spectroscopy, arising from coherent vacuum phase effects and consistent with recent high-precision datasets. In the neutrino sector, neutrino masses emerge naturally from localized topological phase interference, yielding the observed mass scale without introducing additional heavy fields. We further address the quantum–classical transition by deriving a nonlinear phase-induced decoherence mechanism for macroscopic objects. The resulting mass- and size-dependent decoherence times place mesoscopic systems near the picogram scale at the threshold of sustained quantum superpositions, a regime accessible to current optomechanical experiments. These results suggest that precision spectroscopy, neutrino phenomenology, and mesoscopic quantum tests probe a common underlying phase structure of the vacuum. The Yugen wavefunction thus provides a unified and experimentally falsifiable framework linking quantum fields, particle properties, and the emergence of classicality.

Shigeru Akabane

AbstractWe develop and apply the Yugen wavefunction framework, a phase-geometric reformulation of quantum theory in which the vacuum is treated as an active medium with intrinsic stiffness set by the Planck scale. In this approach, physical fields and particles emerge from internal phase geometry rather than from fundamental point-like interactions. By identifying the amplitude of the Yugen wavefunction with the Planck energy, the Planck scale becomes a physical parameter governing vacuum rigidity and nonlinear phase response.We present explicit numerical predictions across atomic, particle, and mesoscopic regimes. In the atomic sector, the framework predicts small but systematic nonlinear deviations in isotope-shift spectroscopy, arising from coherent vacuum phase effects and consistent with recent high-precision datasets. In the neutrino sector, neutrino masses emerge naturally from localized topological phase interference, yielding the observed mass scale without introducing additional heavy fields.We further address the quantum–classical transition by deriving a nonlinear phase-induced decoherence mechanism for macroscopic objects. The resulting mass- and size-dependent decoherence times place mesoscopic systems near the picogram scale at the threshold of sustained quantum superpositions, a regime accessible to current optomechanical experiments.These results suggest that precision spectroscopy, neutrino phenomenology, and mesoscopic quantum tests probe a common underlying phase structure of the vacuum. The Yugen wavefunction thus provides a unified and experimentally falsifiable framework linking quantum fields, particle properties, and the emergence of classicality.

Sung-Sik Lee

Bernhard Baumgartner

Elliot Nelson, Riedel, C. Jess

The emergence of preferred classical variables within a many-body wavefunction is encoded in its entanglement structure in the form of redundant classical information shared between many spatially local subsystems. We show how such structure can be generated via cosmological dynamics from the vacuum state of a massless field, causing the wavefunction to branch into classical field configurations on large scales. An accelerating epoch first excites the vacuum into a superposition of classical fields as well as a highly sensitive bath of squeezed super-horizon modes. During a subsequent decelerating epoch, gravitational interactions allow these modes to collect information about longer-wavelength fluctuations. This information disperses spatially, creating long-range redundant correlations in the wavefunction. The resulting classical observables, preferred basis for decoherence, and system/environment decomposition emerge from the translation invariant wavefunction and Hamiltonian, rather than being fixed by hand. We discuss the role of squeezing, the cosmological horizon scale, and phase information in the wavefunction, as well as aspects of wavefunction branching for continuous variables and in field theories.