Physical Origins of Time Asymmetry

Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 3/21/1996
EAN 9780521568371, ISBN10: 0521568374

Paperback, 536 pages, 23.6 x 19 x 2.8 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English

In the world about us, the past is distinctly different from the future. More precisely, we say that the processes going on in the world about us are asymmetric in time or display an arrow of time. Yet this manifest fact of our experience is particularly difficult to explain in terms of the fundamental laws of physics. Newton's laws, quantum mechanics, electromagnetism, Einstein's theory of gravity, etc., make no distinction between past and future - they are time-symmetric. Reconciliation of these profoundly conflicting facts is the topic of this volume. It is an interdisciplinary survey of the variety of interconnected phenomena defining arrows of time, and their possible explanations in terms of underlying time-symmetric laws of physics.

1. Investigations of quantum decoherence A. Albrecht
2. The emergence of time and its arrow from timelessness J. Barbour
3. Complexity C. Bennet
4. Unorthodox thoughts about time I. Bialynicki-Birula
5. Temperature and time in the geometry of rotating black holes J. D. Brown and J. W. York
6. Information, chaos and statistical physics C. Caves
7. Time asymmetry and the flow of information T. Cover
8. Decoherence without complexity and without an arrow of time B. Dewitt
9. The decoherence functional in quantum mechanics F. Dowker
10. Quantum cosmology and the arrow of time M. Gell-Mann
11. Wormholes and time asymmetry P. Gonzalez-Diaz
12. Statistical irreversibility
classical and quantum R. Griffiths
13. Time asymmetry and quantum cosmology J. Halliwell
14. The arrow of time in quantum mechanics J. Hartle
15. My greatest mistake S. Hawking
16. Fluctuation-dissipation in quantum fields and gravitational entropy B. Hu
17. Time and interpretation of quantum gravity K. Kuchar
18. The arrow of time in the Hartle-Hawking wave function R. Lafflamme
19. Quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics and the origins of time asymmetry J. Lebowitz
20. Information flow S. Lloyd
21. Times at early times J. Louko
22. Time, information and quantum correlations W. Miller
23. Fluctuation-dissipation theorem in general relativity and the cosmological constant E. Mottola
24. Time asymmetry and the interpretation of quantum mechanics V. Mukhanov
25. Logical time asymmetry in quantum mechanics R. Omnes
26. Stirring up trouble P. C. W. Davies
27. Time, quantum cosmology and Mach's principle T. Padmanabhan
28. Entropy versus clock time D. Page
29. Decoherence and back-reaction J. Paz
30. Essay on time J. Perez-Mercadier
31. Time-symmetric cosmology and definite quantum measurements L. Schulman
32. Demonic heat engines and the second law B. Schumacher
33. Decoherence and the arrow of time in the inflationary scenario A. Starobinsky
34. Essay on time C. Teitelboim
35. Time in quantum gravity W. Unruh
36. Instability, escape and chaos in a driven asymmetric non-linear oscillator M. Velarde
37. How come time? J. Wheeler
38. Is time asymmetry logically prior to quantum mechanics W. Wootters
39. Time (A-)symmetry in recollapsing quantum universe H. Zeh
40. Toward a quantum theory of classical reality W. Zurek.