2011/08/03 by Nicolas C. Menicucci, Menicucci, Nicolas C., S. Jay Olson +4
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1108.0883
11 pages, 3 figures
arxiv created 2011/08/03 · openalex publication_date 2011/08/03 · arxiv updated 2011/08/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The Thermal Time Hypotheis (TTH) has been proposed as a general method for identifying a time variable from within background-free theories which do not come equipped with a pre-defined clock variable. Here, we explore some implications of the TTH in an entirely relational context by constructing a protocol for the creation of "thermal clocks" from components of a large but finite quantum mechanical system. The protocol applies locally, in the sense that we do not attempt to construct a single clock describing the evolution of the entire system, but instead we construct clocks which describe the evolution of each subsystem of interest. We find that a consistency condition required for the evolution of our clocks is operationally equivalent to the general relativistic Tolman-Ehrenfest relation for thermal equilibrium in a static gravitational field but without the assumption of gravity or a metric field of any kind.