Emergence of Space-Time from Topologically Homogeneous Causal Networks

Abstract

We study the emergence of Minkowski space-time from a causal network. Differently from previous approaches, we require the network to be topologically homogeneous, so that the metric is derived from pure event-counting. Emergence from events has an operational motivation in requiring that every physical quantity---including space-time---be defined through precise measurement procedures. Topological homogeneity is a requirement for having space-time metric emergent from the pure topology of causal connections, whereas physically homogeneity corresponds to the universality of the physical law. We analyze in detail the case of 1+1 dimensions. If we consider the causal connections as an exchange of classical information, we can establish coordinate systems via an Einsteinian protocol, and this leads to a digital version of the Lorentz transformations. In a computational analogy, the foliation construction can be regarded as the synchronization with a global clock of the calls to independent subroutines (corresponding to the causally independent events) in a parallel distributed computation. Thus the Lorentz time-dilation emerges as an increased density of leaves within a single tic-tac of a clock, whereas space-contraction results from the corresponding decrease of density of events per leaf. The operational procedure of building up the coordinate system introduces an in-principle indistinguishability between neighboring events, resulting in a network that is coarse-grained, the thickness of the event being a function of the observer's clock.