The Relativity of Branching
Abstract
Abstract This chapter argues different ways branching fits within Minkowski spacetime are merely different descriptions of an invariant notion of branching and are due to the relativity of simultaneity. The argument fits in the wider framework of Everett branches as real patterns and is both developed in the abstract setting of the (generalized) histories formalism and discussed comparing the concrete examples of hypersurface-dependent branching and of branching along the forward lightcone. It formulates the latter in terms of branching spacetime, suggesting this is a way in which spacetime can emerge from the universal wave function, and makes tentative connections with causal set theory. The proposed view is compatible with both the Schrödinger and Heisenberg pictures.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Relativity and Gravitational Theory
Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories
Quantum Mechanics and Applications
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Local Quantum Mechanics
- Publisher
- Oxford University PressNew York, NY
- Pages
- 211–236
- Publication date
- 26 August 2026
- Language
- EN
- Document type
- Book chapter