Is the Basic Structure of the Universe Simple?

Can our extremely complicated world be explained, starting from simple conditions and laws? Such questions easily become metaphysical, but at the same time they have historically served science well by promoting new and fruitful ideas. Of particular interest in this paper is the unification of general relativity and quantum mechanics. It is suggested that a way to find a common basis for these theories could be to view them both as stochastic theories which, among all possible macroscopic developments, promote the simplest ones. But with the difference that general relativity uses real probabilities, whereas quantum mechanics uses complex weights. In a certain sense this approach goes back to the Principle of Least Action, although the perspective on this principle in the present paper is different from the one which is commonly used in contemporary physics. It is also suggested that a more general principle, which applies to both theories and which is beyond both stationarity and minimizing, could give us a better starting point for the unification.

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Publication Details

Journal
Axioms
Published
2025-12-14
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms14120922
Primary Topic
Relativity and Gravitational Theory
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Is the Basic Structure of the Universe Simple?

Martin Tamm
Axioms
Relativity and Gravitational Theory
article

Is the Basic Structure of the Universe Simple?

Martin Tamm
article en

Abstract

Can our extremely complicated world be explained, starting from simple conditions and laws? Such questions easily become metaphysical, but at the same time they have historically served science well by promoting new and fruitful ideas. Of particular interest in this paper is the unification of general relativity and quantum mechanics. It is suggested that a way to find a common basis for these theories could be to view them both as stochastic theories which, among all possible macroscopic developments, promote the simplest ones. But with the difference that general relativity uses real probabilities, whereas quantum mechanics uses complex weights. In a certain sense this approach goes back to the Principle of Least Action, although the perspective on this principle in the present paper is different from the one which is commonly used in contemporary physics. It is also suggested that a more general principle, which applies to both theories and which is beyond both stationarity and minimizing, could give us a better starting point for the unification.

AxiomsVol. 14(12)
Stockholm University (SE)
Openalex Percentile: Top 72%
Relativity and Gravitational Theory
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Is the Basic Structure of the Universe Simple? — Martin Tamm · Axioms (2025) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS