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According to the argument in this post, a theory of Quantum Gravity should not be compatible with the notion of time evolution. This is also called "The Problem of time".

However, the target spacetime formulation of string theory does have a notion of universal background time given by the target spacetime. So it seems like it does not address the problem of time. The CFT part of AdS/CFT is also a QFT with a well-defined universal time.

So does String theory not address this problem? If no, then what does it say about it?

Qmechanic
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Ryder Rude
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    The wiki link you give prominently says "this article has some interesting ideas in it, but some of it is wrong, and a lot of it reads like an attempt by someone without deep expertise to summarize half-understood stuff that they've read.". I vote to close because this site if for questions in main stream physics, not speculations. – anna v Nov 02 '23 at 17:59
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    @annav Nothing about this question is speculation as opposed to mainstream physics? – Eletie Nov 02 '23 at 23:32
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    How is this not mainstream physics? The problem of time is a well known feature of quantum gravity related to reparameterisation invariance, and the question simply asks if the same problem exists in string theory. We have answered questions on this before. See for example Why is there a “problem of time” in Quantum Gravity?. – John Rennie Nov 03 '23 at 10:19

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There is not necessarily a problem of time in String Theory. The problem of time arises when solving the canonical quantization of gravity, i.e., the Wheeler-de Witt equation. String theory provides a different explanation of gravity than canonical quantization. So there may or may not be fundamental time evolution in the ultimate string theory, if such a theory is ever found.

Travis
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