Physical Origins of Time Asymmetry

Produktbeschreibung

In the world about us, the past is distinctly different from the future. More precisely, we say that the processes going on in the world about us are asymmetric in time, or display an arrow of time. Yet this manifest fact of our experience is particularly difficult to explain in terms of the fundamental laws of physics. Newton's laws, quantum mechanics, electro-magnetism, Einstein's theory of gravity, etc., make no distinction between past and future -- they are time-symmetric. 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 terms of underlying time-symmetric laws of physics. 

Inhaltsverzeichnis

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.