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We reconsider the old but yet unsolved problems, origin of the universe and the arrow of time. We show that only the closed universe is free from the singularity with the arrow of time symmetric with respect to the maximal size of the…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2025-10-13 Takeshi Fukuyama

The fundamental time-reversal invariance of dynamical systems can be broken in various ways. One way is based on the presence of resonances and their interactions giving rise to unstable dynamical systems, leading to well-defined time…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2009-11-11 Robert C. Bishop

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

We present a quantum model for the motion of N point particles, implying nonlocal (i.e., superluminal) influences of external fields on the trajectories, that is nonetheless fully relativistic. In contrast to other models that have been…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2017-08-23 Sheldon Goldstein , Roderich Tumulka

We present a proof of Arrow's theorem from social choice theory that uses a fixpoint argument. Specifically, we use Banach's result on the existence of a fixpoint of a contractive map defined on a complete metric space. Conceptually, our…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2019-07-25 Frank M. V. Feys , Helle Hvid Hansen

We believe the following three ingredients are enough to explain the mystery of the arrow of time: (1). equations of dynamics of gas molecules, (2). chaotic instabilities of the equations of dynamics, (3). unavoidable perturbations to the…

General Physics · Physics 2012-01-27 Y. Charles Li , Hong Yang

There is a widespread assumption that the universe in general, and the Earth's biosphere in particular, is becoming more complex over time. This paper formulates this assumption as a macroscopic law, the law of increasing complexity, for a…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2026-03-02 Tatsuaki Okamoto

In this paper we discuss the traditional approaches to the problem of the arrow of time. On the basis of this discussion we adopt a global and non-entropic approach, according to which the arrow of time has a global origin and is an…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2014-11-18 Mario Castagnino , Luis Lara , Olimpia Lombardi

This paper is a continuation of the papers [gr-qc/9409010, gr-qc/9505034, gr-qc/9603022, gr-qc/9609035] and is devoted to the riddle of the origin of the arrow of time. The problem of time orientation reduces to that of the difference…

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

The epistemic arrow of time is the fact that our knowledge of the past seems to be both of a different kind and more detailed than our knowledge of the future. Just like with the other arrows of time, it has often been speculated that the…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2023-09-21 David H. Wolpert , Jens Kipper

It is shown that position-momentum correlation is never decreasing and therefore it is a good candidate as a quantum arrow of time devoid of shortcomings of other proposals.

Quantum Physics · Physics 2014-11-11 Alberto C. de la Torre

It was recently shown \cite{opposite} that systems with opposite thermodynamic arrows of time could have moderate mutual interaction with neither destroying the order of the other. Such interaction includes signaling. Signals, however, may…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2009-11-07 L. S. Schulman

The arrow of time dilemma: the laws of physics are invariant for time inversion, whereas the familiar phenomena we see everyday are not (i.e. entropy increases). I show that, within a quantum mechanical framework, all phenomena which leave…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2010-04-22 Lorenzo Maccone

What is the physical origin of the arrow of time? It is a commonly held belief in the physics community that it relates to the increase of entropy as it appears in the statistical interpretation of the second law of thermodynamics. At the…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2023-04-19 Andreas Henriksson

It is one of the most important and long-standing issues of physics to derive the irreversibility out of a time-reversal symmetric equation of motion. The present paper considers the breaking of the time-reversal symmetry in open quantum…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2019-04-10 Naomichi Hatano , Gonzalo Ordonez

The question of the origin of time's arrow is a major outstanding problem in physics. Here we present a mechanism for the emergence of a cosmological arrow of time from a confinement--deconfinement transition in a $ Z_2 $ lattice gauge…

General Physics · Physics 2026-05-19 Deepak Vaid

The puzzle of the thermodynamic arrow of time reduces to the question of how the universe could have had lower entropy in the past. I show that no special entropy lowering mechanism (or fluctuation) is necessary. As a consequence of…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2015-05-13 L. S. Schulman

One of the basic assumptions underlying Bell's theorem is the causal arrow of time, having to do with temporal order rather than spatial separation. Nonetheless, the physical assumptions regarding causality are seldom studied in this…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2018-07-03 Nathan Argaman

We provide a new perspective on the close relationship between entanglement and time. Our main focus is on bipartite entanglement, where this connection is foreshadowed both in the positive partial transpose criterion due to Peres [A.…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2023-03-01 Markus Frembs

Consider a Hamiltonian system that consists of a slow subsystem S and a fast subsystem F. The autonomous dynamics of S is driven by an effective Hamiltonian, but its thermodynamics is unexpected. We show that a well-defined thermodynamic…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2009-11-13 Armen E. Allahverdyan , Dominik Janzing