Physical Origins of Time Asymmetry

by Halliwell, J. J.; Perez-Mercader, J.; Zurek, Wojciech Hubert

• ISBN13: 9780521568371
• ISBN10: 0521568374
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-04-01
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

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 term of underlying time symmetric laws of physics.

Table of Contents

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.