Time Without Time: A Dual Clock Interferometric Search for Operational Time Anomalies

Time is not a fundamental coordinate but a relation: all physical dynamics are defined on a timeless, global state space, and what we call “time” is the ordered relation between a chosen reference clock and the rest of the system.

Formulate the above relational time postulate in an operationally minimal framework aligned with Wheeler–DeWitt constraint dynamics and the Page–Wootters construction, derive a concrete, testable prediction, when the same physical process is parametrized by two physically different “clocks” (e.g. an optical atomic clock and a mechanical phase clock), a small but measurable phase discrepancy can appear after all known effects are calibrated, if time is purely relational, propose a dual-clock interferometric experiment, and present an analytic sensitivity study. Our framework reproduces GR+QM in the ideal clock limit, yet allows for an operational deviation encoded by two dimensionless parameters. A null result yields new upper bounds across disparate frequency bands. A positive, replicated signal would provide the first operational evidence for “time without time”.

This document is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. The specific measurement protocol described herein, the unique ϵ and χ parametrization, and the associated data analysis algorithms constitute intellectual property. Any experimental realization or software implementation of the mathematical model is subject to the prior written consent of the author.