2026/07/03 by Alessio Maiezza
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Dissipative system #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #Quantization (signal processing) #Quantum #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum field theory #Quantum field theory in curved spacetime #Quantum gravity #Quantum spacetime #Renormalization #Spacetime #gr-qc #hep-th #math-ph #math.MP #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-026-16089-x
published in The European Physical Journal C 86(7) (Springer Science+Business Media)
openalex publication_date 2026/07/18 · openalex created_date 2026/07/19 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract We develop a top-down counterpart of the minimal proper-time formulation of quantum field theory previously introduced as an effective bottom-up framework. Starting from a deterministic pre-geometric substrate of causally ordered events, we show how coarse-graining over microscopic histories leads, at low energies, to an effective Nambu-like quantum dynamics. The elementary deterministic update is identified with the minimal proper-time step, while the growth of coarse-grained equivalence classes controls both the ultraviolet dissipative correction and the scale dependence of the effective quantization strength, encoded in a running Planck constant. In this way, the proper-time cutoff kernel of the bottom-up formulation acquires a microscopic interpretation as the inverse growth of unresolved deterministic histories. In the infrared limit, the dissipative term vanishes and standard unitary quantum field theory is recovered. The same coarse-grained structure also provides a natural setting for an emergent relativistic spacetime geometry, compatible in the macroscopic limit with Einstein gravity. The resulting picture suggests a common deterministic origin for minimal-scale structure, quantum behavior, and relativistic spacetime.