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Related papers: On the statistical arrow of time

200 papers

We investigate the statistical arrow of time for a quantum system being monitored by a sequence of measurements. For a continuous qubit measurement example, we demonstrate that time-reversed evolution is always physically possible, provided…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2017-12-06 Justin Dressel , Areeya Chantasri , Andrew N. Jordan , Alexander N. Korotkov

The vacuum is full of virtual particles which exist for short moments of time. In this paper we construct a chaotic model of vacuum fluctuations associated with a fundamental entropic field that generates an arrow of time. The dynamics can…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2015-06-03 Christian Beck

We demonstrate that in quantum many-body systems, local arrows of time can differ from the global time $t$ induced by Hamiltonian evolution. That is, within a quantum many-body system, the flow of time can be relative to each observer or by…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-11-14 Andrew G. Yates , Jordan Cotler , Nishad Maskara , Mikhail D. Lukin

We study how rapidly the direction of time becomes operationally detectable from mesoscopic data when state-weights may be positive or negative. In contrast with classical Markov processes -- where forward evolution is instantly…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-06-17 Adam Brandenburger , Pierfrancesco La Mura

This work explores the implications of assuming time symmetry and applying bridge-type, time-symmetric temporal boundary conditions to deterministic laws of nature with random components. The analysis, drawing on the works of Kolmogorov and…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2025-06-23 A. Y. Klimenko

This work explores Boltzmann's time hypothesis, which associates the perceived direction of "time flow" with the second law of thermodynamics. We discuss mechanisms that can be responsible for the action of the second law, for directional…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2019-03-12 A. Y. Klimenko

This contribution analyses the classical laws of motion by means of an approach relating time and entropy. We argue that adopting the notion of change of states as opposed to the usual derivation of Newton's laws in terms of fields a…

General Physics · Physics 2007-06-19 R Assumpcao

The essential postulates of classical thermodynamics are formulated, from which the second law is deduced as the principle of increase of entropy in irreversible adiabatic processes that take one equilibrium state to another. The entropy…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2009-10-30 Elliott H. Lieb , Jakob Yngvason

The interface between classical physics and quantum physics is explained from the point of view of quantum information theory (Feynman Processes). The interpretation depends on a hefty sacrifice: the classical determinism or the arrow of…

General Physics · Physics 2008-03-18 Lucian M. Ionescu

Driven by the term "the arrow of time" as a general topic, the article develops a musical discussion by referring to the etymological origin of the term: philosophy (epistemology) and physics (thermodynamics). In particular, the article…

Sound · Computer Science 2024-01-01 Qi Xu

We investigate a thermodynamic arrow associated with quantum projective measurements in terms of the Jensen-Shannon divergence between the probability distribution of energy change caused by the measurements and its time reversal…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2015-06-16 Juyeon Yi , Beom Jun Kim

I explain in what sense the structure of space and time is probably vague or indefinite, a notion I define. This leads to the mathematical representation of location in space and time by a vague interval. From this, a principle of…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2023-08-24 Hanoch Ben-Yami

This article aims at applying the approaches peculiar to analytic philosophy to the question about representation of the concept of time as a symbol which can reflect the bases of the modern natural sciences, social sciences and humanities.…

General Physics · Physics 2021-04-02 Sergey B. Kulikov

We advance a new viewpoint on the connection between the the thermodynamical and cosmological arrows of time, which can be traced via the properties of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation. We show that in the…

Astrophysics · Physics 2008-11-26 A. E. Allahverdyan , V. G. Gurzadyan

All of the basic microsopic physical laws are time reversible. In contrast, the second law of thermodynamics, which is a macroscopic physical representation of the world, is able to describe irreversible processes in an isolated system…

Chemical Physics · Physics 2015-06-19 Roland Riek

Causality underpins all logical reasoning. However, the causal structure in quantum processes can be far from intuitive, often differing from its classical counterpart in relativity, which is defined by the light cone. In particular, in…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-01-21 Hong-Yi Wang , Haifeng Tang , Xiao-Liang Qi

We analyze the equilibrium space of an ideal gas using the formalism of geometrothermodynamics. We introduce the concept of thermodynamic geodesics to show that the equilibrium space around a particular initial state can be divided into two…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2024-10-11 Hernando Quevedo

Understanding the emergence of the thermodynamic arrow of time in microscopic systems is of fundamental importance, particularly given that unitary evolution preserves time-reversal symmetry. While projective measurements introduce temporal…

The explanation of the apparent universality of thermodynamics points toward the extension of the usual conceptual background of the second law. Arguments are collected that a basic guiding idea of stability of thermodynamic equilibrium…

Classical Physics · Physics 2014-07-23 P. Ván

The existence of small amounts of advanced radiation, or a tilt in the arrow of time, makes the basic equations of physics mixed-type functional differential equations. The novel features of such equations point to a microphysical structure…

General Physics · Physics 2008-08-12 C. K. Raju