Time and its arrow from quantum geometrodynamics?

Abstract We discuss how quantum geometrodynamics, a conservative approach to quantum gravity, might explain the emergence of classical spacetime and, with it, the emergence of classical time and its arrow from the universal quantum state. This follows from a particular but reasonable choice of boundary condition motivated by the structure of the Hamiltonian of the theory. This condition can also be seen as defining a quantum version of Penrose’s Weyl curvature hypothesis. We comment on the relation of this picture to the ‘past hypothesis’ and the different observed arrows of time, and we consider how quantum geometrodynamics could serve as a unifying and more fundamental framework to explain these observations.