English

Quantum Theory Looks at Time Travel

Quantum Physics 2015-06-26 v2

Abstract

We introduce a quantum mechanical model of time travel which includes two figurative beam splitters in order to induce feedback to earlier times. This leads to a unique solution to the paradox where one could kill one's grandfather in that once the future has unfolded, it cannot change the past, and so the past becomes deterministic. On the other hand, looking forwards towards the future is completely probabilistic. This resolves the classical paradox in a philosophically satisfying manner.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0506027,
  title  = {Quantum Theory Looks at Time Travel},
  author = {Daniel M. Greenberger and Karl Svozil},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0506027},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

This paper contains minor changes to our paper published as Chapter 4 of Quo Vadis Quantum Mechanics?, ed. by A. Elitzur, S. Dolev and N. Kolenda, Springer Verlag, Berlin (2005). It is an expanded version of D.M. Greenberger and K. Svozil, in: Between Chance and Choice, ed. by H. Atmanspacher and R. Bishop, Imprint Academic, Thorverton England (2002), pp. 293-308. Two references added

R2 v1 2026-07-22T19:49:18.971Z