Related papers: How superluminal motion can lead to backward time …
We discuss some properties of Lorentz invariant theories which allow for superluminal motion. We show that, if signals are always sent forward in time, closed curves along which signals propagate can be formed. This leads to problems with…
An explanation for superluminal phenomena based on wave-particle duality of photons is suggested. A single photon may be regarded as a wave packet, whose spatial extension is its coherence volume. As a photon propagates as a wave train in…
The closed causal chains arising from backward time travel do not lead to paradoxes if they are self consistent. This raises the question as to how physics ensures that only self-consistent loops are possible. We show that, for one…
The Einstein equations allow solutions containing closed timelike curves. These have generated much puzzlement and suspicion that they could imply paradoxes. I show that puzzlement and paradoxes disappears if we discuss carefully the…
We present a toy metric of spacetime travel from topological change. A bubble-like baby universe is detached and re-attached from our universe. Depending on where the bubble is re-attached, matter may travel superluminally or…
It is commonly accepted that superluminal travel may be used to facilitate time travel. This is a purely special-relativistic argument, using the fact that for observers in two frames of reference, separated by a spacelike interval, the…
A time machine that sends information back to the past may, in principle, be built using closed time-like curves. However, the realization of a time machine must be congruent with apparent paradoxes that arise from traveling back in time.…
In an apparently unexplored region of relativistic spacetime, a simple thought experiment demonstrates that conjoined Lorentz transformations predict a proper clock at rest will run backwards and that prediction violates the logical…
It is claimed in the above paper that, if time travel were possible, quantum propagation would prevent classic time travel paradoxes by establishing consistent loops; an example circuit is used to demonstrate such a loop. It is argued here…
Brane observers executing appropriate motion through a partially compactified Lorentz invariant bulk spacetime, such as $M_4 \times S^1$, can send signals along the brane that are instantaneous or even travel backward in time. Nevertheless,…
We discuss the possible cosmological implications of a class of superluminal particles, in a scenario where: a) Lorentz invariance is only an approximate property of the equations of a sector of matter; b) several critical speeds of matter…
Because closed timelike curves are consistent with general relativity, many have asserted that time travel into the past is physically possible if not technologically infeasible. However, the possibility of time travel into the past rests…
The invariance of the speed of light implies a series of consequences related to our perception of simultaneity and of time itself. Whilst these consequences are experimentally well studied for subluminal speeds, the kinematics of…
Superluminal particles are not excluded by particle physics. The apparent Lorentz invariance of the laws of physics does not imply that space-time is indeed minkowskian. Matter made of solutions of Lorentz-invariant equations would feel a…
Apparently 'superluminal' transmission, e.g., in quantum tunnelling and its variants, occurs via a subtle interference mechanism which allows reconstruction of the entire spacial shape of a wave packet from its front tail. It is unlikely…
The "twin paradox" of special relativity offers the possibility to make interstellar flights within a lifetime. For very long journeys with velocities close to the speed of light, however, we have to take into account the expansion of the…
The question of whether it is possible or not to surpass the speed of light is already centennial. The special theory of relativity took the existence of a speed limit as a principle, the light postulate, which has proven to be enormously…
Recent results demonstrating superluminal group velocities and tachyonic dispersion relations reopen the question of superluminal signals and causal loop paradoxes. The sense in which superluminal signals are permitted is explained in terms…
We exploit the analogy between tunnelling across a potential barrier and Aharonov's weak measurements to resolve the long standing paradox between the impossibility to exceed the speed of light and the seemingly 'superluminal' behaviur of…
We introduce a quantum mechanical model of time travel which includes two figurative beam splitters in order to induce feedback to earlier times. This leads to a unique solution to the paradox where one could kill one's grandfather in that…