A thermodynamic approach to emergent quantum mechanics

Universidad Politecnica de Valencia
46022 Valencia, Spain

Quantum mechanics emerges á la Verlinde from a foliation of {R}^3 by holographic screens, when regarding the latter as entropy reservoirs that a particle can exchange entropy with. This entropy is quantised in units of Boltzmann's constant k_B. The holographic screens can be treated thermodynamically as stretched membranes. On that side of a holographic screen where spacetime has already emerged, the energy representation of thermodynamics gives rise to the usual quantum mechanics. A knowledge of the different surface densities of entropy flow across all screens is equivalent to a knowledge of the quantum-mechanical wavefunction on {R}^3.
The entropy representation of thermodynamics, as applied to a screen, can be used to describe quantum mechanics in the absence of spacetime, that is, quantum mechanics beyond a holographic screen, where spacetime has not yet emerged. Our approach can be regarded as a formal derivation of Planck's constant hbar from Boltzmann's constant k_B.

CURRENT POSITION
Professor

DEGREES
Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain (1993).
CURRENT RESEARCH LINES
Mathematical physics, theoretical physics.

PREVIOUSLY HELD POSITIONS
1. Postdoc, Jan 1995 – Jun 1997. Physics Department, Brandeis University, Boston, USA.
2. Postdoc, Sept 1997 – Sept 2001. Dipartimento di Fisica “G. Galilei”, Universit`a di Padova, Italy.
3. Postdoc, Oct 2001 – Sept 2002. Department of Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford, UK.
4. Postdoc, Oct 2002 – Sept 2007. Instituto de F´isica Corpuscular IFIC, Valencia, Spain.

SHORT ACADEMIC VISITS
1. Department of Physics, Queen Mary and Westfield College, London, UK.
Jun 1994–Oct 1994.
2. Max–Planck–Institut f ¨ur Gravitationsphysik, Potsdam, Germany.
July 2004, Oct 2005, July 2006–Aug 2006, Aug 2007, Aug 2008, Aug 2010.