Abstract
The fact that in Minkowski space, space and time are both quantized does not have to be introduced as a new postulate in physics, but can actually be derived by combining certain features of General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. This is demonstrated first in a model where particles behave as point defects in 2 space dimensions and 1 time, and then in the real world having 3+1 dimensions. The mechanisms in these two cases are quite different, but the outcomes are similar: space and time form a (non-cummutative) lattice.
These notes are short since most of the material discussed in these lectures is based on two earlier papers by the same author (gr-qc/9601014 and gr-qc/9607022), but the exposition given in the end is new.
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’t Hooft, G. (1997). Quantization of Space and Time in 3 and in 4 Space-Time Dimensions. In: ’t Hooft, G., Jaffe, A., Mack, G., Mitter, P.K., Stora, R. (eds) Quantum Fields and Quantum Space Time. NATO ASI Series, vol 364. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1801-7_7
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