The two-story space-time hypothesis for quantum effects

The underlying structure is a network of nodes and bonds. A physical point or lump is identified with a maximal complete subgraph, or mss. A local group consists of overlapping lumps surrounding a given lump, while bonds may also connect non-overlapping lumps. The resulting space-time has a macroscopic structure formed by overlapping lumps and a substructure of stochastic inter-lump connections.

Two-story space-time hypothesis. The weaker and more stochastic communication between the various lumps, beneath the macroscopic or quasiclassical surface structure, is responsible for the quantum effects observed in present-day effective quantum theories.

The proposal distinguishes the ordinary space-time geometry and classical causality represented by the overlapping-lump surface from a deeper web of nonlocal or entangled connections. It is presented as the paper's central conjecture within a broader, explicitly hypothetical scenario for the emergence of physical space-time.