Quantum Solution to the Arrow-of-Time Dilemma

DOI10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.103.080401zbMATH Open1254.82020arXiv0802.0438WikidataQ50727343 ScholiaQ50727343MaRDI QIDQ4898085FDOQ4898085

Authors: Lorenzo Maccone 

Publication date: 29 December 2012

Published in: Physical Review Letters (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The arrow of time dilemma: the laws of physics are invariant for time inversion, whereas the familiar phenomena we see everyday are not (i.e. entropy increases). I show that, within a quantum mechanical framework, all phenomena which leave a trail of information behind (and hence can be studied by physics) are those where entropy necessarily increases or remains constant. All phenomena where the entropy decreases must not leave any information of their having happened. This situation is completely indistinguishable from their not having happened at all. In the light of this observation, the second law of thermodynamics is reduced to a mere tautology: physics cannot study those processes where entropy has decreased, even if they were commonplace.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/0802.0438

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zbMATH Keywords

arrow-of-time dilemma

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

General and philosophical questions in quantum theory (81P05) Foundations of time-dependent statistical mechanics (82C03)

Cites Work

• Decoherence, einselection, and the quantum origins of the classical
• Unified dynamics for microscopic and macroscopic systems
• Language identification in the limit
• Quantum theory: concepts and methods
• Ultimate information carrying limit of quantum systems
• From Quantum Dynamics to the Canonical Distribution: General Picture and a Rigorous Example
• Does inflation provide natural initial conditions for the universe
• Note on the derivation of the Boltzmann equation from the Liouville equation

Cited In (10)

• Microscopic reversibility and macroscopic irreversibility: a lattice gas model
• On decoherence in quantum gravity
• Coordination problems on networks revisited: statics and dynamics
• Time reversal symmetry of generalized quantum measurements with past and future boundary conditions
• Topological phase transitions on the square-octagon lattice driven by the Rashba spin-orbit coupling and staggered potential
• Arrow of time in rigged Hilbert space quantum mechanics
• Opposite arrows of time can reconcile relativity and nonlocality
• On the arrow of time
• Derivation of nonlinear Schrödinger equation
• Wasn't Boltzmann right?

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