Lee Smolin (Perimeter Institute): 'A New Proposal for a Nonlocal Hidden Variables Theory'

A new non-local hidden variables theory is proposed that reduces to Nelson's stochastic formulation of quantum theory for N particles, in the large N limit. The dynamical variables are elements of a matrix, and the dynamics of the theory is identical with those of matrix models that provide non-perturbative definitions of string theory. These models then seem to unify gravity and quantum physics, in the context of a non-local hidden variables theory.