Relativistic Quantum Theory Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Penrose (2004: 579):

But this is not how ordinary quantum mechanics works. There is only one time for all the particles. 

When we think about physics in an ordinary ‘non-relativistic’ way, this may indeed seem sensible, since in non-relativistic physics, time is external and absolute, and it simply ‘ticks away’ in the background, independently of the particular contents of the universe at any one moment. 

But, since the introduction of relativity, we know that such a picture can only be an approximation. What is the ‘time’ for one observer is a mixture of space and time for another, and vice versa. 

Ordinary quantum theory demands that each particle individually must carry its own space coordinate. Accordingly, in a properly relativistic quantum theory, it should also individually carry its own time coordinate. 

Indeed, this viewpoint has been adopted from time to time by various authors, going back to the late 1920s, but it does not seem to have been developed into a full-blown relativistic theory. A basic difficulty with allowing each particle its own separate time is that then each particle seems to go on its merry way off into a separate time dimension, so further ingredients would be needed to get us back to reality.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, time does not "tick away". Instead, time is the dimension of the unfolding of processes, such as the ticking of a clock, and the duration between ticks of a clock serves as a standard by which to measure the unfolding of other processes.

From this same perspective, the notion of a relativistic quantum theory is mistaken. Quantum theory is concerned with the relation between potential and instance, but General Relativity is not. General Relativity is concerned with modelling the relation between instances (particles) and their spatiotemporal dimensions.

The reason why instances of the same potential do not have different time co-ordinates is that they are mediums of the one process of instantiation, and it is this one unfolding that is measured as the one time. Put simply, such instantiations are simultaneous.