Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T04:03:32.223Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Arrow of Time in Quantum Gravity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Chuang Liu
Chuang Liu*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Florida
*
‡Send reprint requests to the author, Department of Philosophy, University of Florida, 310 Griffin-Floyd Hall, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This essay is a philosophical evaluation of some of the findings of Wald and Penrose in which they claim to have supported an arrow (or the irreversibility) of time in quantum gravity. First, the notion of lawlike irreversibility (or anisotropy) of time is spelled out, then the general situation in quantum mechanics is briefly discussed. Finally, the findings in quantum gravity are evaluated against such a background. My conclusion is that the arrow of time found in quantum gravity is at best de facto (nonlawlike).

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 60 , Issue 4 , December 1993 , pp. 619 - 637
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

I wish to thank John Earman for introducing me to this subject and helping me with the writing of this paper.

References

Aharonov, Y.; Bergmann, P. G.; and Lebowitz, J. L. (1964), “Time Symmetry in the Quantum Process of Measurement”, Physical Review B: 1410–1416.10.1103/PhysRev.134.B1410CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, P. C. W. (1974), The Physics of Time Asymmetry. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Gold, T. (1962), “The Arrow of Time”, American Journal of Physics 30: 403–410.10.1119/1.1942052CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grünbaum, A. (1973), Philosophical Problems of Space and Time. 2d. ed. Boston: Reidel.10.1007/978-94-010-2622-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawking, S. W. (1974), “Black Hole Explosion?” Nature 248: 30–31.10.1038/248030a0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawking, S. W. (1975), “Particle Creation by Black Holes”, Communications of Mathematical Physics 43: 199–220.10.1007/BF02345020CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horwich, P. (1987), Asymmetries in Time. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Isham, C. J.; Penrose, R.; and Sciama, D. W. (eds.) (1981), Quantum Gravity 2: A Second Oxford Symposium. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Itzykson, C. and Zuber, J. (1980), Quantum Field Theory. New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Penrose, R. (1979), “Singularities and Time-asymmetry”, in Hawking, S. W. and Israel, S. W. (eds.), General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, pp. 581–638.Google Scholar
Penrose, R. (1981), “Time-asymmetry and Quantum Gravity”, in Isham et al. 1981, pp. 244–272.Google Scholar
Reichenbach, H. (1956), The Direction of Time. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.10.1063/1.3059791CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sachs, R. G. (1972), “Time Reversal”, Science 176: 587–597.10.1126/science.176.4035.587CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sklar, L. (1974), Space, Time and Spacetime. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Streater, R. F. and Wightman, A. S. (1964), PCT, Spin and Statistics, and All That. New York: W. A. Benjamin.Google Scholar
von Neumann, J. ([1932] 1955), Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics. Translated by R. T. Bayer. Originally published as Mathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik (Berlin: Springer). Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Wald, R. M. (1975), “On Particle Creation by Black Holes”, Communication of Mathematical Physics 45: 9–34.10.1007/BF01609863CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wald, R. M. (1980), “Quantum Gravity and Time Reversibility”, Physical Review D: 2742–2755.Google Scholar
Wald, R. M. (1981), “Black Holes, Thermodynamics, and Time Reversibility”, in Isham et al. 1981, pp. 223–243.Google Scholar
Wald, R. M. (1984), General Relativity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226870373.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar