Is The Wheeler De Witt Equation Inconsistent With The Universe's Description?

[Aethelwulf]

Is the Wheeler de Witt equation Inconsistent with the Universe's Description?

 

 

Let us first understand, from my previous essay on this topic, how the Wheeler de Witt equation is supposed to describe the universe, but is incapable of describing any type of real evolution for this universe.

 

The reason is because the Wheeler de Witt (WDW) equation fails to describe a time derivative as would be found in your classic Schrodinger equation. This not only posits a problem, but the Flatness problem also posits doubts on whether the WDW-equation is even the correct quantization method to describe the universe.

 

We seem to have been concerned taking the General Relativistic Einstein equations to describe our universe in terms of curvature - an approach to describe the universe was to quantize these equations which led to the WDW-equation, but a problem arises. Curvature was very prevelant during the beginning of our universe, but as true time evolution passes, our universe becomes flatter and flatter, making the original equations which describe intrinsic curvature more and more incompatible. This reaches the epoch known as the flatness problem.

 

Because of this, the quantization of Einstein's equations cannot fully describe the universe - essentially it would mean that the wave function of the universe is incomplete - [math]<\Psi>[/math]. The equations which describe instrinsic curvature eventually becomes redundant and flattens out classically to the Newtonian limit

 

For nearly flat spacetimes (or classical Newtonian limits) the energy of a vaccuum could only satisfy

 

[math]E = \int_v T_{00} dV[/math]

 

where [math]E[/math] is the energy and [math]T_{00}[/math] is the time-time component of the stress energy tensor. This permits to quasi-static systems, those concerned with very little to almost no gravitational wave influences. Keep in mind, there are of course no evidences for the existence of gravitational waves - they only appear in Einstein's theory with no experimental confirmation. It is a current research program to try and find evidence for these waves, one reason they may appear so allusive is because they may have a bandwidth outside of our detection.

 

When one tries to incorporate flat spacetimes, (or approximately close to it), the metric coefficients are pretty much Minkowskian flat spacetime, where in the realm of weak gravity, the vacuum looks flat in every direction (or in physics language, it looks flat globally).

 

This is a real problem for the initial quantization methods placed on the equations described by Einstein which help explain systems with intrinsic curvature. The quantization methods employed may actually describe the universe quite well in it's early stages but gradually breaks down as our universe gets larger and larger - simply because curvature smooths out considerably and the quantization on the universe cannot describe the evolution of the entire system (the global wave function) over time, suggesting there is a serious breakdown in the description of the universe. More appropriately said perhaps, the WDW-equation may be fundamental, but cannot describe gravity as the universe gets weak and as dimensions begin to appear in the low energy epoch. This distinction helps us narrow down what the WDW-equation might be good for:

 

1. The description of the universe involving high energy physics

 

2. Good at describing the universe without the need of spatial or temporal permutations

 

3. Good at describing gravity at fundamental scales

 

The second axiom here, basically states that space and time are not fundamental (a point I have made many times in my original essays on the WDW-equation) , and this makes sense if we are to believe in Bells Theorem coupled with the idea that the WDW-equation has no description of time for the universe (fundamentally-speaking). Bells Theorem actually seems to suggest (as a growing population of scientists seem to be agreeing on) is that distance between objects is not fundamental, hence giving a fundamental reason why spooky action at a distance is a real factor of the world. A second point that it cannot deal with temporal descriptions comes to the idea that space and time are inseparable... If space deals with the conventional three dimensional world we are accustomed to, the geometrogenesis dictates that space appeared alongside time in the low energy epoch.

 

In the realization of these facts, physics will face a new paradigm shift. It will need to deal with Einstein's equations in a completely new way. The idea that curvature has a role to play in the high energy epoch of the universe will remain unperturbed, but the idea that it's quantization will lead to a successful description of the universe when curvature no longer has such a great role will make Einstein's equations redundant when curvature is related in stark contrast to the Flatness Problem of Cosmology.

 

In a more outlandish, but still possible realization also, is that Einstein's equations may in fact break down on large scales, meaning that dark matter may in fact just be anomalies which Einstein's equations cannot fully reconcile when large enough distances are taken into account.

 

These idea's can be tested as General Relativity is put to the limit over very large distances, which cannot be fully confirmed unfortunately, until we are capable of traveling very large distances in spacetime as well.

Edited December 6, 2012 by Aethelwulf