A five-dimensional classical framework for gravitational and quantum phenomena.
Filip Strubbe
Abstract
Open AccessConventional attempts to unify quantum theory with general relativity by quantizing gravity face persistent challenges, suggesting the need for a deeper framework. This work examines whether gravitational and quantum phenomena can arise within a five-dimensional classical theory. In this theory, four-dimensional spacetime evolves under an additional parameter τ, with gravitational and worldline relaxation mechanisms driving the system toward a stable equilibrium. In the weak-gravity limit, the theory recovers Newtonian gravity in equilibrium, while basic features of general relativity are recovered beyond this limit. Two hallmark quantum phenomena are also reproduced: EPR-type correlations arise through interactions propagating along worldlines, while double-slit interference emerges from the collective dynamics of worldlines composing each particle. Since outcomes are determinate there is no measurement problem, and the progressive self-assembly of worldlines in the time dimension provides a natural mechanism for the observed flow and arrow of time. The framework further predicts experimentally distinguishable effects, such as the possibility of extracting gravitational which-way information without disturbing interference. These results indicate a higher-dimensional classical route toward a unified theory of quantum gravity. Since it is based on realism, locality, and determinism at its foundations, this framework revives Einstein's vision of a more intuitive, fundamentally classical understanding of nature.