Life on a closed timelike curve

Fuente: arXiv
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Autor principal: Gavassino, Lorenzo
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2024
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author Gavassino, Lorenzo
author_facet Gavassino, Lorenzo
contents We study the internal dynamics of a hypothetical spaceship traveling on a close timelike curve in an axially symmetric universe. We choose the curve so that the generator of evolution in proper time is the angular momentum. Using Wigner's theorem, we prove that the energy levels internal to the spaceship must undergo spontaneous discretization. The level separation turns out to be finely tuned so that, after completing a roundtrip of the curve, all systems are back to their initial state. This implies, for example, that the memories of an observer inside the spaceship are necessarily erased by the end of the journey. More in general, if there is an increase in entropy, a Poincaré cycle will eventually reverse it by the end of the loop, forcing entropy to decrease back to its initial value. We show that such decrease in entropy is in agreement with the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis. The non-existence of time-travel paradoxes follows as a rigorous corollary of our analysis.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_18640
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Life on a closed timelike curve
Gavassino, Lorenzo
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Quantum Physics
We study the internal dynamics of a hypothetical spaceship traveling on a close timelike curve in an axially symmetric universe. We choose the curve so that the generator of evolution in proper time is the angular momentum. Using Wigner's theorem, we prove that the energy levels internal to the spaceship must undergo spontaneous discretization. The level separation turns out to be finely tuned so that, after completing a roundtrip of the curve, all systems are back to their initial state. This implies, for example, that the memories of an observer inside the spaceship are necessarily erased by the end of the journey. More in general, if there is an increase in entropy, a Poincaré cycle will eventually reverse it by the end of the loop, forcing entropy to decrease back to its initial value. We show that such decrease in entropy is in agreement with the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis. The non-existence of time-travel paradoxes follows as a rigorous corollary of our analysis.
title Life on a closed timelike curve
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.18640