Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-b6zl4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-05T10:37:09.419Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Three Myths about Time Reversal in Quantum Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Bryan W. Roberts
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Many have suggested that the transformation standardly referred to as ‘time reversal’ in quantum theory is not deserving of the name. I argue on the contrary that the standard definition is perfectly appropriate and is indeed forced by basic considerations about the nature of time in the quantum formalism.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 84 , Issue 2 , April 2017 , pp. 315 - 334
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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

†

Thanks to Harvey Brown, Craig Callender, Tony Duncan, John Earman, Christoph Lehner, John D. Norton, Giovanni Valente, and David Wallace for helpful comments. Special thanks to David Malament for many helpful discussions during the development of these ideas. This work benefited from National Science Foundation grant 1058902.

References

Albert, D. Z. 2000. Time and Chance. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Ballentine, L. E. 1998. Quantum Mechanics: A Modern Development. Singapore: World Scientific.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biedenharn, L. C., and Sudarshan, E. C. G.. 1994. “A Basis-Free Approach to Time-Reversal for Symmetry Groups.” Pramana 43 (4): 255–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Callender, C. 2000. “Is Time ‘Handed’ in a Quantum World?” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, n.s., 100:247–69.Google Scholar
Chevalier, G. 2007. “Wigner’s Theorem and Its Generalizations.” In Handbook of Quantum Logic and Quantum Structures: Quantum Structures, ed. Engesser, K., Gabbay, D. M., and Lehmann, D., 429–76. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Earman, J. 2002. “What Time Reversal Is and Why It Matters.” International Studies in Philosophy of Science 16 (3): 245–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halvorson, H., and Clifton, R.. 2002. “No Place for Particles in Relativistic Quantum Theories?” Philosophy of Science 69 (1): 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hegerfeldt, G. C. 1994. “Causality Problems for Fermi’s Two-Atom System.” Physical Review Letters 72 (5): 596–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Malament, D. B. 1996. “In Defense of Dogma: Why There Cannot Be a Relativistic Quantum Mechanics of (Localizable) Particles.” In Perspectives on Quantum Reality: Non-relativistic, Relativistic, and Field-Theoretic, ed. Clifton, R., 1–10. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Clifton, R. 2004. “On the Time Reversal Invariance of Classical Electromagnetic Theory.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 35:295–315.Google Scholar
Messiah, A. 1999. Quantum Mechanics: Two Volumes Bound as One. New York: Dover.Google Scholar
Molnár, L. 2000. “Generalization of Wigner’s Unitary-Antiunitary Theorem for Indefinite Inner Product Spaces.” Communications in Mathematical Physics 210 (3): 785–91.Google Scholar
Peterson, D. 2015. “Prospects for a New Account of Time Reversal.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 49:42–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, B. W. 2012a. “Kramers Degeneracy without Eigenvectors.” Physical Review A 86 (3): 034103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, B. W. 2012b. “Time, Symmetry and Structure: A Study in the Foundations of Quantum Theory.” PhD diss., University of Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Sachs, R. G. 1987. The Physics of Time Reversal. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Sakurai, J. J. 1994. Modern Quantum Mechanics. Rev. ed. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.Google Scholar
Uhlhorn, U. 1963. “Representation of Symmetry Transformations in Quantum Mechanics.” Arkiv för Fysik 23:307–40.Google Scholar
Varadarajan, V. S. 2007. Geometry of Quantum Theory. 2nd ed. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Wigner, E. P. 1931/1931. Group Theory and Its Application to the Quantum Mechanics of Atomic Spectra. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar