Time may not be a fundamental element of the Universe; time could be an illusion arising from quantum inseparability, a new study suggests.
Time is a complicated problem for physicists; its inconsistent behavior among the best theories of the Universe contributes to an impasse that prevents researchers from finding a “theory of everything,” that is, a framework to explain all the physics in the Universe.
But in the new study, the researchers suggest they may have found a clue to solving this problem: time could be an illusion of quantum inseparability, the strange connection between two distant particles.
The team published their findings in the journal Physical Review A.
Time could be an illusion. Why do researchers think this?
“There is a way to introduce time that is consistent with both classical and quantum laws, and which is a manifestation of inseparability. The correlation between the clock and the system creates the appearance of time, a fundamental ingredient in our lives,” said Alessandro Coppo, physicist at Italy’s National Research Council and author of the study.
In quantum mechanics, the best theory about the microscopic world, time is a fixed phenomenon, an inexorable, unidirectional flow from past to present. It remains external to the bizarre and ever-changing quantum systems it measures, and can only be seen by observing the changes of external entities, such as those of a clock.
However, according to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which describes larger objects such as our bodies, stars and galaxies, time is intertwined with space and can be distorted and dilated at high speeds or in the presence of gravity. This puts the two best theories of reality at a fundamental impasse. Without solving it, a coherent theory of everything remains inaccessible.
“There appears to be a serious inconsistency in quantum theory. This is what we call the timing problem,” said Coppo, quoted by Space.com.
A 40-year-old theory
To solve this problem, the researchers turned to a theory called the Page and Wootters mechanism. First proposed in 1983, the theory suggests that time occurs for one object through its quantum “entanglement” with another that acts as a clock. For an “unentangled” system, on the other hand, time does not exist, and the system perceives the Universe as frozen and unchanging.
Applying the Page and Wootters mechanism to two theoretically inseparable but non-interacting quantum states, one a vibrating harmonic oscillator and the other a set of small magnets acting like a clock, the physicists found that their system could be perfectly described by the Schrödinger equation, which predicts the behavior of quantum objects. However, instead of time, their version of the famous equation worked according to the states of small magnets that acted like a clock.
This idea isn’t new, but the team’s next step was something new. The scientists repeated the calculations twice, first assuming that the magnetic clock and then the harmonic oscillator were macroscopic (larger) objects. Their equations simplified into those for classical physics, suggesting that the flow of time is a consequence of inseparability even for large-scale objects.
Not all scientists agree that time could be an illusion
“We strongly believe that the right and logical direction is to start from quantum physics and understand how to get to classical physics, not the other way around,” Coppo said. Other physicists have expressed caution. While Page and Wootters consider the mechanism a fascinating idea for the quantum origins of time, they said it has yet to produce anything testable.
“Yes, it is mathematically consistent to think of universal time as the inseparability of quantum fields and quantum states of 3D space,” said Vlatko Vedral, a professor of quantum information science at the University of Oxford (England), who was not involved in the work.
“However, no one knows whether anything new or fruitful will result from this insight, such as changes to quantum physics and general relativity and corresponding experimental tests,” he continues.
Despite these doubts, building theories of time from quantum mechanics can still be a promising place to start, as long as they can be modeled to match experiments.
“Maybe there’s something about inseparability that plays a role. Perhaps the only way to understand time is not from a divine perspective, but from within, from the perspective of asking what in life manifests such an appearance of the world,” said Adam Frank, a theoretical physicist at the University of Rochester (USA ), who was not involved in the study.
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Source: www.descopera.ro
