Related papers: Time-Reversal and Irreversibility
The quantum mechanical time-evolution is studied for a particle under the influence of an explicitly time-dependent rotating potential. We discuss the existence of the propagator and we show that in the limit of rapid rotation it converges…
The applicability of time-reversal symmetry to nonlinear optics is discussed, both from macroscopic (Maxwell equations) and microscopic (quantum theoretical) point of view. We find that only spatial operations can be applied for the…
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…
Microphysical laws are time reversible, but macrophysics, chemistry and biology are not. This chapter explores how this asymmetry (a classic example of a broken symmetry) arises due to the cosmological context, where a non-local Direction…
The fundamental dynamics of quantum particles is neutral with respect to the arrow of time. And yet, our experiments are not: we observe quantum systems evolving from the past to the future, but not the other way round. A fundamental…
Time-asymmetric spacetime structures, in particular those representing black holes and the expansion of the universe, are intimately related to other arrows of time, such as the second law and the retardation of radiation. The nature of the…
Through extended consideration of two wide classes of case studies -- dilute gases and linear systems -- I explore the ways in which assumptions of probability and irreversibility occur in contemporary statistical mechanics, where the…
Classical computations inherently require energy dissipation that increases significantly as the reliability of the computation improves. This dissipation arises when transitions between memory states are not balanced by their time-reversed…
The issue of how time reversible microscopic dynamics gives rise to macroscopic irreversible processes has been a recurrent issue in Physics since the time of Boltzmann whose ideas shaped, and essentially resolved, such an apparent…
We propose a mathematical theory for the refocusing properties observed in time-reversal experiments, where classical waves propagate through a medium, are recorded in time, then time-reversed and sent back into the medium. The salient…
We introduce and analyze the physics of "driving reversal" experiments. These are prototype wavepacket dynamics scenarios probing quantum irreversibility. Unlike the mostly hypothetical "time reversal" concept, a "driving reversal" scenario…
We describe a class of modified gravity theories that deform general relativity in a way that breaks time reversal invariance and, very mildly, locality. The algebra of constraints, local physical degrees of freedom, and their linearized…
Following previous investigations by {\"U}st{\"u}nel [22] about the invertibility of some transformations on the Wiener space, we find some entropic conditions under which a random change of time is invertible on the Poisson space. As a…
A slight modification of one axiom of quantum theory changes a reversible theory into a time asymmetric theory. Whereas the standard Hilbert space axiom does not distinguish mathematically between the space of states (in-states of…
The paper addresses the quantization of minisuperspace cosmological models by studying a possible solution to the problem of time and time asymmetries in quantum cosmology. Since General Relativity does not have a privileged time variable…
The question of how irreversibility can emerge as a generic phenomena when the underlying mechanical theory is reversible has been a long-standing fundamental problem for both classical and quantum mechanics. We describe a mechanism for the…
Huw Price has proposed an argument that suggests a time-symmetric ontology for quantum theory must necessarily be retrocausal, i.e. it must involve influences that travel backwards in time. One of Price's assumptions is that the quantum…
Within the context of piecewise linear manifolds we establish reflection positivity with a Hilbert action given in terms of the Regge curvature and a cosmological term. Using this positivity a Hilbert space for a quantum theory is…
$\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric quantum mechanics has been considered an important theoretical framework for understanding physical phenomena in $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric systems, with a number of $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry related applications. This…
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…