The Universe as an Eigenstate: Spacetime Paths and Decoherence

This paper describes how the entire universe might be considered an eigenstate determined by classical limiting conditions within it. This description is in the context of an approach in which the path of each relativistic particle in spacetime represents a fine-grained history for that particle, and a path integral represents a coarse-grained history as a superposition of paths meeting some criteria. Since spacetime paths are parametrized by an invariant parameter, not time, histories based on such paths do not evolve in time but are rather histories of all spacetime. Measurements can then be represented by orthogonal states that correlate with specific points in such coarse-grained histories, causing them to decohere, allowing a consistent probability interpretation. This conception is applied here to the analysis of the two slit experiment, scattering and, ultimately, the universe as a whole. The decoherence of cosmological states of the universe then provides the eigenstates from which our “real” universe can be selected by the measurements carried out within it.