Bell's theorem, non-computability and conformal cyclic cosmology: A top-down approach to quantum gravity

Abstract

This paper draws on a number of Roger Penrose's ideas - including the non-Hamiltonian phase-space flow of the Hawking Box, conformal cyclic cosmology, non-computability, and gravitationally induced quantum state reduction - in order to propose a radically unconventional approach to quantum gravity: Invariant Set Theory (IST). In IST, the fundamental laws of physics describe the geometry of the phase portrait of the universe as a whole: "quantum"process is associated with fine-scale fractal geometry, "gravitational"process with larger-scale heterogeneous geometry. With this, it becomes possible to explain the experimental violation of Bell inequalities without having to abandon key ingredients of general relativity: determinism and local causality. Ensembles in IST can be described by complex Hilbert states over a finite set C p of complex numbers, where p is a large finite integer. The quantum mechanics of finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces is emergent as a singular limit when p → ∞. A small modification to the field equations of general relativity is proposed to make it consistent with IST.