Related papers: Boltzmann's H-theorem and time irreversibility
Paradoxes in the Boltzmann kinetic theory are presented. Firstly, it is pointed out that the usual notion concerning the perfect continuity of distribution function is not generally valid; in many important situations using certain types of…
Rebilas argues that time-reversal can occur even in an indeterministic system. This hypothesis is untestable, hence lying beyond physics.
Time can be defined as the duration between events. It is irreversible. When used as a variable in quantifying the changing properties of matter, this irreversibility of time is incompatible with Newton's deterministic mechanics and with…
Causal reversibility blends reversibility and causality for concurrent systems. It indicates that an action can be undone provided that all of its consequences have been undone already, thus making it possible to bring the system back to a…
The experimental proofs of strong time invariance violation in optics are discussed. Time noninvariance is the only real physical base for explanation the origin of the most phenomena in nonlinear optics. The experimental study of forward…
We explain why the conventional argument for deriving the time-dependent Born-Oppenheimer approximation is incomplete and review recent mathematical results, which clarify the situation and at the same time provide a systematic scheme for…
One of the important questions in statistical mechanics is how irreversibility (time's arrow) occurs when Newton equations of motion are time reversal invariant. One objection to irreversibility is based on Poincar\'e's recursion theorem: a…
I will argue, pace a great many of my contemporaries, that there's something right about Boltzmann's attempt to ground the second law of thermodynamics in a suitably amended deterministic time-reversal invariant classical dynamics, and that…
A broken time-reversal symmetry, i.e. broken detailed balance, is central to non-equilibrium physics and is a prerequisite for life. However, it turns out to be quite challenging to unambiguously define and quantify time-reversal symmetry…
This paper discusses the thermodynamic irreversibility realized in high-dimensional Hamiltonian systems with a time-dependent parameter. A new quantity, the irreversible information loss, is defined from the Lyapunov analysis so as to…
It has often been suggested that retrocausality offers a solution to some of the puzzles of quantum mechanics: e.g., that it allows a Lorentz-invariant explanation of Bell correlations, and other manifestations of quantum nonlocality,…
Quantum theory depends on an external classical time, and there ought to exist an equivalent reformulation of the theory which does not depend on such a time. The demand for the existence of such a reformulation suggests that quantum theory…
The need for a time-shift invariant formulation of quantum theory arises from fundamental symmetry principles as well as heuristic cosmological considerations. Such a description then leaves open the question of how to reconcile global…
Inconsistencies are pointed out in the usual quantum versions of the classical linear Boltzmann equation constructed for a quantized test particle in a gas. These are related to the incorrect formal treatment of momentum decoherence. We…
We introduce a ``two-particle factorization'' condition which allows us to formulate the homogeneous Boltzmann equation for non-reversible collision kernels in terms of an entropy inequality. This formulation yields an H-Theorem. We provide…
Any theory that states that the basic laws of physics are time-symmetric must be strictly deterministic. Only determinism enables time reversal of entropy increase. A contradiction therefore arises between two statements of Hawking. A…
It is argued that setting isolated systems as primary scope of field theory and looking at particles as derived entities, the problem of an objective anchorage of quantum mechanics can be solved and irreversibility acquires a fundamental…
By studying the set of correlations that are theoretically possible between physical systems without allowing for signalling of information backwards in time, we here identify correlations that can only be achieved if the time ordering…
In a way similar to classical mechanics where we have the concept of inertial time as expressed in the motions of bodies, in the (special) theory of relativity we can regard the inertial time as the only notion of time at play. The inertial…
The notions of time in the theories of Newton and Einstein are reviewed so that certain of their assumptions are clarified. These assumptions will be seen as the causes of the incompatibility between the two different ways of understanding…