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The only widely accepted explanation for the various arrows of time that everywhere and at all epochs point in the same direction is the `past hypothesis': the Universe had a very special low-entropy initial state. We present the first…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2014-12-11 Julian Barbour , Tim Koslowski , Flavio Mercati

Cosmic inflation claims to make the initial conditions of the standard big bang "generic". But Boltzmann taught us that the thermodynamic arrow of time arises from very non-generic ("low entropy") initial conditions. I discuss how to…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 Andreas Albrecht

This thesis addresses two major problems in the philosophy of physics. The first is how to identify the minimal physical content of a theory; that is, what features of a theory are truly needed to make predictions, and what can be removed…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2025-09-19 Sean Gryb

This paper is a continuation of the paper gr-qc/0203045 and is devoted to the problem of the arrow of time. A deterministic past-directed dynamics is constructed, which results in the retrodictive universe. A future-directed dynamics of the…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2007-05-23 Vladimir S. Mashkevich

We investigate implications of decoherence for quantum systems which are classically chaotic. We show that, in open systems, the rate of von Neumann entropy production quickly reaches an asymptotic value which is: (i) independent of the…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2011-08-04 Wojciech Hubert Zurek , Juan Pablo Paz

The origin and nature of time in complex systems is explored using quantum (or 'Feynman') clocks and the signals produced by them. Networks of these clocks provide the basis for the evolution of complex systems. The general concept of…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2007-05-23 Scott Hitchcock

Deriving an arrow of time from time-reversal symmetric microscopic dynamics is a fundamental open problem in many areas of physics, ranging from cosmology, to particle physics, to thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. Here we focus on…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-01-31 Thomas Guff , Chintalpati Umashankar Shastry , Andrea Rocco

Time-asymmetric spacetime structures, in particular those representing black holes and the expansion of the universe, are intimately related to other arrows of time, such as the second law and the retardation of radiation. The nature of the…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2017-11-22 H. D. Zeh

The second law of thermodynamics - the usual statement of the arrow of time - has been called the most fundamental law of physics. It is thus difficult to conceive that a single dynamical system could contain subsystems, in significant…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2007-05-23 L. S. Schulman

We basis our initial analysis of the arrow of time on a relationship between the time evolution operator of quantum system and the time-independent density operator which describes the equilibrium state of a many-particle system at…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2023-04-05 Benno Bodmann , César A. Zen Vasconcellos , José de Freitas Pacheco , Peter O. Hess , Dimiter Hadjimichef

The connection between the micro and macro-arrow of time is discussed in the frame of the stochastic quantum hydrodynamic analogy (SQHA). The presence of fluctuations that in the case on non-linear interactions leads to the breaking of the…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2015-06-16 Piero Chiarelli

Recently, a substantial amount of debate has grown up around a proposed quantum resolution to the `arrow of time dilemma' that is based on the role of classical memory records of entropy-decreasing events. In this note we show that the…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2015-05-14 David Jennings , Terry Rudolph

The importance of the global nature of the arrow of time is shown. Classical Reichenbach diagram and quantum Bohm-Reichenbach diagram, for the universe are introduced. They are used to show the increase of entropy in closed systems, the…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2007-05-23 Mario A. Castagnino

Time has always played a crucial role in cosmology. I review some of the aspects of the present cosmological model which are more directly related to time, such as: the definition of a cosmic time; the existence of typical timescales and…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2017-03-22 A. Balbi

In a recent preprint [arXiv:2601.14134v1], Rubin argues that the arrow of time originates from the monotonic growth of the volume of extra dimensions. While the identification of a geometric origin for time's arrow is compelling in the case…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2026-01-28 Andrei Galiautdinov

In any physical theory that admits true indeterminism, the thermodynamic arrow of time can arise regardless of the system's initial conditions. Hence on such theories time's arrow emerges out of the basic physical interactions. The example…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2007-05-23 Shahar Dolev , Avshalom C. Elitzur , Meir Hemmo

Deutsch and Aguirre have recently shown that the solutions of certain dynamical systems typically contain a point of minimum size that they identify as an entropy minimum and from which the size and entropy increase to infinity in both…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2021-08-24 Julian Barbour

Why time is a one-way corridor? What's the origin of the arrow of time? We attribute the thermodynamic arrow of time as the direction of increasing quantum state complexity. Inspired by the work of Nielsen, Susskind and Micadei, we checked…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2017-12-20 Xiao Dong , Ling Zhou

Living systems are fundamentally irreversible, breaking detailed balance and establishing an arrow of time. But how does the evident arrow of time for a whole system arise from the interactions among its multiple elements? We show that the…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2022-09-21 Christopher W. Lynn , Caroline M. Holmes , William Bialek , David J. Schwab

The local Lorentz and diffeomorphism symmetries of Einstein's gravitational theory are spontaneously broken by a Higgs mechanism by invoking a phase transition in the early Universe, at a critical temperature $T_c$ below which the symmetry…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2014-11-17 J. W. Moffat