Quantizing gravitational fields with an entropy-corrected action principle
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Quantum Physics arXiv:2605.05239 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 3 May 2026] Title:Quantizing gravitational fields with an entropy-corrected action principle Authors:Jianhao M. Yang View a PDF of the paper titled Quantizing gravitational fields with an entropy-corrected action principle, by Jianhao M. Yang View PDF Abstract:A variational framework for the quantization of gravitational fields is developed based on an extension of the stationary action principle. Within this framework, the Wheeler-DeWitt equation for the gravitational wave functional is recovered without assuming operator promotion of the canonical momentum, thus avoiding the ambiguity of operator ordering in canonical quantization. The derivation is based on three main ingredients. First, motivated by information-theoretic considerations, the classical stationary action principle is generalized by incorporating a correction term constructed from the relative entropy associated with field fluctuations. Second, an ensemble formulation on superspace is enhanced to incorporate this entropy correction. Third, the formalism is further refined to provide a unified treatment of quantization and constraints, thereby addressing the long-standing ambiguity concerning the ordering of quantization and constraint reduction. The framework is then applied to gravitational fields coupled to a massless scalar field. Using an emergent time parameter defined via the rate equation of the gravitational fields, a Schrodinger equation for the scalar-field wave functional is recovered, supplemented by an additional quantum correction term suppressed at order $G\hbar^2$. Finally, we comment on possible connections between the notion of relative entropy employed here and holographic dualities in quantum gravity. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) Cite as: arXiv:2605.05239 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2605.05239v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.05239 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Jianhao M. Yang [view email] [v1] Sun, 3 May 2026 01:57:57 UTC (37 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Quantizing gravitational fields with an entropy-corrected action principle, by Jianhao M. YangView PDFTeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-05 Change to browse by: gr-qc References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)