Building spacetime from effective interactions between quantum fluctuations

Abstract

We describe how a model of effective interactions between quantum fluctuations under certain assumptions can be constructed in a way so that the large-scale limit gives an effective theory that matches general relativity in vacuum regions. This is an investigation of a possible scenario of spacetime emergence from quantum interactions directly in the spacetime, and of how effective quantum behaviour might provide a useful link between detailed properties of quantum interactions and general relativity. The quantum fluctuations are assumed to entangle sufficiently for a cohesive spacetime to form, so that their effective properties can be described relative to a D-dimensional reference frame. To obtain the desired features of a smooth metric with a vanishing Ricci tensor, the quantum fluctuations are modelled as Gaussian probability distributions, with a shape set relative to the interactions coming from the surroundings. At small scales, the propagation through the spacetime is modelled by a Gaussian random walk.