Related papers: Time, Closed Timelike Curves and Causality
In this review paper, we consider the fundamental nature of time and causality, most particularly, in the context of the theories of special and general relativity. We also discuss the issue of closed timelike curves in the context of…
The conceptual definition and understanding of time, both quantitatively and qualitatively is of the utmost difficulty and importance. As time is incorporated into the proper structure of the fabric of spacetime, it is interesting to note…
General relativity allows solutions exhibiting closed timelike curves. Time travel generates paradoxes and quantum mechanics generalizations were proposed to solve those paradoxes. The implications of self-consistent interactions on acausal…
The conceptual definition and understanding of the nature of time, both qualitatively and quantitatively is of the utmost difficulty and importance, and plays a fundamental role in physics. Physical systems seem to evolve in paths of…
Examples are given of the creation of closed timelike curves by choices of coordinate identifications. Following G\"odel's prescription, it is seen that flat spacetime can produce closed timelike curves with structure similar to that of…
In general relativity, closed timelike curves can break causality with remarkable and unsettling consequences. At the classical level, they induce causal paradoxes disturbing enough to motivate conjectures that explicitly prevent their…
I give a historical survey of the discussions about the existence of closed timelike curves in general relativistic models of the universe, opening the physical possibility of time travel in the past, as first recognized by K. G\"odel in…
We discuss the usual account of causal structure that relies on the temporal precedence constraint between cause-effect pairs. In particular, we consider the subtle interplay between local and global characters of time and causality encoded…
Near a spinning point particle in (2+1)-dimensional gravity (or near an infinitely thin, straight, spinning string in 3+1 dimensions) there is a region of space-time with closed timelike curves. Exact solutions for extended sources with…
General relativity does not prohibit the existence of space-times that describe time travel. Consideration of such spaces gives rise to a lot of questions and paradoxes, among which there are thermodynamic ones. This paper considers two…
Most approaches to quantum gravity suggest that relativistic spacetime is not fundamental, but instead emerges from some non-spatiotemporal structure. This paper investigates the implications of this suggestion for the possibility of time…
In this work, the classical Godel solution from general relativity is extended into the framework of modified gravity theories based on non-metricity $Q$ and the trace of the energy-momentum tensor $T$ in the context of $f(Q,T)$ gravity.…
It is often argued that superluminal velocities and nontrivial spacetime topologies, allowed by the theory of relativity, may lead to causal paradoxes. By emphasizing that the notion of causality assumes the existence of a time arrow (TA)…
Closed timelike curves are among the most controversial features of modern physics. As legitimate solutions to Einstein's field equations, they allow for time travel, which instinctively seems paradoxical. However, in the quantum regime…
As shown by Gott, a pair of straight cosmic strings moving in opposite directions, when they have suitable speed and impact parameter, produce closed timelike curves. I argue in this paper that there always is a not-so-frightening…
In this article we present a review of a geometric and algebraic approach to causal cones and describe cone preserving transformations and their relationship with the causal structure related to special and general relativity. We describe…
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…
In asymmetrically warped spacetimes different warp factors are assigned to space and to time. We discuss causality properties of these warped brane universes and argue that scenarios with two extra dimensions may allow for timelike curves…
We investigate here the causal structure of spacetime in the vicinity of a spacetime singularity. The particle and energy emission from such ultra-dense regions forming in gravitational collapse of a massive matter cloud is governed by the…
Many solutions of Einstein's field equations contain closed timelike curves (CTC). Some of these solutions refer to ordinary materials in situations which might occur in the laboratory, or in astrophysics. It is argued that, in default of a…