The Emergence of Spacetime: Transactions and Causal Sets

2014/11/08 by R. E. Kastner, Kastner, R. E.
Medicine · Physics and Astronomy · #Biofield Effects and Biophysics #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #Origins and Evolution of Life #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1411.2072

openalex publication_date 2014/11/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

This paper discusses how the transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics can provide for a natural account of the emergence of spacetime events from a quantum substratum. In this account, spacetime is not a substantive manifold that becomes occupied with events; rather, spacetime itself exists only in virtue of specific actualized events. This implies that spacetime is discrete rather than continuous, and that properties attributed to spacetime based on the notion of a continuum are idealizations that do not apply to the real physical world. It is further noted that the transactional picture of the emergence of spacetime can provide the quantum dynamics that underlie the causal set approach as proposed by Sorkin and others.

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