Quantum Solution to the Arrow-of-Time Dilemma
Name
Maccone-2009-Quantum Solution to.pdf
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89.92 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Maccone, Lorenzo
Date Issued
August 2009
Journal
Physical Review Letters
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Maccone, Lorenzo . “Quantum Solution to the Arrow-of-Time Dilemma.” Physical Review Letters 103.8 (2009): 080401. © 2009 The American Physical Society.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The arrow-of-time dilemma states that 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.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.080401
