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    Quantum Physics of Time Travel

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    Kevin S. Decker
    This document discusses time travel paradoxes and concepts from quantum physics. It introduces the grandfather paradox where traveling back in time could disrupt one's own existence. It describes spacetime as a 4-dimensional worm with one's life forming a worldline from birth to death. Events are separated as either timelike within the light cone of an observer's past and future, or spacelike outside the cones. Distortions in spacetime from black holes could allow closed worldlines and causality violations where effects precede causes. Quantum entanglement also seems to allow connection between particles across time.

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    Quantum Physics of Time Travel

    Uploaded by

    Kevin S. Decker
    34 views10 pages
    This document discusses time travel paradoxes and concepts from quantum physics. It introduces the grandfather paradox where traveling back in time could disrupt one's own existence. It describes spacetime as a 4-dimensional worm with one's life forming a worldline from birth to death. Events are separated as either timelike within the light cone of an observer's past and future, or spacelike outside the cones. Distortions in spacetime from black holes could allow closed worldlines and causality violations where effects precede causes. Quantum entanglement also seems to allow connection between particles across time.

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    A Powerpoint on the topic for undergraduate collegians

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    This document discusses time travel paradoxes and concepts from quantum physics. It introduces the grandfather paradox where traveling back in time could disrupt one's own existence. It describes spacetime as a 4-dimensional worm with one's life forming a worldline from birth to death. Events are separated as either timelike within the light cone of an observer's past and future, or spacelike outside the cones. Distortions in spacetime from black holes could allow closed worldlines and causality violations where effects precede causes. Quantum entanglement also seems to allow connection between particles across time.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    34 views10 pages

    Quantum Physics of Time Travel

    Uploaded by

    Kevin S. Decker
    This document discusses time travel paradoxes and concepts from quantum physics. It introduces the grandfather paradox where traveling back in time could disrupt one's own existence. It describes spacetime as a 4-dimensional worm with one's life forming a worldline from birth to death. Events are separated as either timelike within the light cone of an observer's past and future, or spacelike outside the cones. Distortions in spacetime from black holes could allow closed worldlines and causality violations where effects precede causes. Quantum entanglement also seems to allow connection between particles across time.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 10

    QUANTUM

    PHYSICS OF
    TIME TRAVEL
    PHIL 214
    THE OLDEST PARADOXES

    • The Dichotomy
    • Achilles and the Tortoise
    • Zeno’s Arrow
    A NEW SET OF SPACE-TIME PARADOXES

    • The GRANDFATHER PARADOX:


    “Imagine, if you will, that our friend Sonia keeps a time machine in her garage.
    Last night she used it to visit her grandfather in 1924, when he was still courting
    her grandmother. Sonia convinced him of her identity by referring to family
    secretes that he had not yet revealed to anyone. This left him stunned, but
    worse was yet to follow. When he told his sweetheart over dinner that he had
    just met their future granddaughter, the lady’s response was both to doubt his
    sanity and to take offense at his presumption. They never married and never
    had the baby who would have become Sonia’s mother. So how can Sonia be
    sitting here today, telling us of her adventure?”
    EVENTS OF YOUR LIFE AS A
    FOUR-DIMENSIONAL WORLDLINE

    “Your life forms a kind of


    four-dimensional ‘worm’
    in space-time: the tip of
    the worm’s tail
    corresponds to the event
    of your birth and the
    front of its head to the
    event of your death.”
    EVENTS OF YOUR LIFE AS A
    FOUR-DIMENSIONAL WORLDLINE

    “An object, seen at any


    one instant, is a three-
    dimensional cross section
    of this long, thin,
    intricately curved worm.”
    THE SPEED OF LIGHT = EINSTEIN’S KEY LAW

    C = 186,000 miles per


    second

    Light cones, like those of the


    Minkowski diagram (left) are
    represented at 45 degrees to
    a person’s worldline, which
    is the vertical axis.
    SPACE-LIKE AND TIME-LIKE SEPARATION
    The observer is at the center
    of the diagram.

    Events that fall in the


    bottom light cone are time-
    like separated--the
    observer’s past.

    Events that fall in the top


    light cone are time-like
    separated—the observer’s
    future.
    SPACE-TIME DISTORTION

    Space-time can be distorted


    by massive bodies like black
    holes and stars.

    Some worldlines could form


    closed loops, connecting one
    time with another.
    SPACE-TIME DISTORTION
    Space-time can be distorted
    by massive bodies like black
    holes and stars.

    Some worldlines could form


    closed loops, connecting one
    time with another.

    This could produce a


    causality violation, with an
    effect ocurring before its
    cause in external time.
    QUANTUM WEIRDNESS

    Subatomic particles
    sometimes act as if they are
    affected by CTCs—what
    Einstein called “spooky
    action at a distance” is now
    called “quantum
    entanglement.”

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