David Deutsch and Chiara Marletto have demonstrated a way to formulate the laws of physics without explicitly including time, a longstanding challenge in both quantum mechanics and general relativity. Their research, completed in June 2026, uses ‘constructor theory’, which defines physical laws by the possible transformations of systems using cyclical devices.
“Fundamental laws of physics do not refer to time,” the researchers write, instead focusing on what transformations are possible or impossible. This approach avoids the problematic treatment of time as a non-physical variable, while still accounting for duration and dynamics, a step that is important for a truly timeless physics.
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