Talk on Temporal Paradoxes and their resolution the framework of current thinking on quantum mechanics. Given at NASA's Goddard Space Center 2011.

1. Temporal paradoxes
John Ashmead
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 1 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 1

2. CBS News: March 16, 2011 1:39 am
Can atom smasher double as time machine?
Inside the Large Hadron Collider. A view of the CMS, or Compact Muon Solenoid
(Credit: SteMaximilien Brice/CERN)
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 2 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 2

3. Basic equation
General relativity
+ Quantum mechanics
Time machine
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 3 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 3

4. Why look at this?
•Interesting question
•Sheds light on both general relativity &
quantum mechanics
•May help reconcile them
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 4 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 4

5. A, B, & C meet at P
tC tA tB
•A at rest
•B going right, B says
P & Q are “now” xB
e nt
R res
’s p
•C going left, C says B
A’s presentx
P & R are “now” A
C’s
pres
Q ent
•Are Q & R both P xC
“now”???
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 5 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 5

6. General relativity
•Time is variable
•Wormholes
•Paradoxes
•Consistency principles
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 6 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 6

7. Time is variable
•Time dilation
•Gravitational red shift
•Frame dragging
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 7 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 7

8. Relativistic time dilation
•At high speeds,
particles seem to
be using slower
clocks
•We seem slower to
them
•Subtracts 7 ms/
day from GPS
clocks
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 8 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 8

9. Gravitational red shift
•Photon swimming
up stream loses
energy
•Looks as if time is
slower on surface
•Adds 45ms/day to
GPS clocks
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 9 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
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10. Gravity Probe B
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 10 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
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11. Very massive
ballerinas
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 11 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 11

12. Wormholes
•Can be used for faster than light travel
•Built using black holes & math glue
•Can be used as time machines
•And as billiard table
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 12 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 12

13. Wormholes, Time Machines,
and the Weak Energy
Condition
Morris, Thorne, & Yurtsever
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 13 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 13

14. Wormhole time machine
Relativistic speed Enormous gravity
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 14 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
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15. Billiards with wormholes
Future mouth
1
Past mouth 2
15
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 15

16. Paradoxes
•Grandfather paradoxes
•Bootstrap paradoxes
•Plausibility paradoxes
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 16 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
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17. Grandfather paradoxes
1’
3
Future mouth
1
Past mouth 2
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 17 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
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18. Bootstrap paradoxes
Future mouth Where did the
billiard ball
come from?
Past mouth ?
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 18 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 18

19. Plausibility paradoxes
Billiard ball hits
itself just hard
Future mouth enough that it
1’ hits itself just
hard enough
that it …
1
Past mouth 2
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 19 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 19

20. Chronology Protection
Agency
It seems that there is a Chronology
Protection Agency which prevents the
appearance of closed timelike curves
and so makes the universe safe for
historians.
— Stephen Hawking
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 20 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 20

21. Weak energy
condition
•If averaged energy positive, no
wormholes
•But, beware of quantum fluctuations,
•black swans,
•and circular arguments.
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 21 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 21

22. Novikov consistency
conjecture
…the only solutions to the laws of physics
that can occur locally in the real Universe are
those which are globally self-consistent.
— Igor Novikov
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 22 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 22

23. Quantum mechanics
•LHC may produce time machines
•Quantum mechanics
•Typology of time machines
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 23 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 23

24. Large Hadron Collider
& Time Machines
•Evanescent wormholes
•Higgs singlets
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 24 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 24

25. Three papers
•If LHC is a Mini-Time-Machines Factory, Can
We Notice?
— Mironov, Morozov, & Tomaras
•Time Machine at the LHC
— Aref’eva, Volovich
•Causality violating Higgs Singlets at the LHC
— Ho, Weiler
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 25 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 25

26. Mironov, Morozov, & Tomaras
•Frequency filtration 0 or more time circuits
•Unexpectedly
energetic particles
•Accelerated aging
•Perceived unitarity
violations
•Collective effects
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 26 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 26

27. Quantum mechanics
•Single slit & double slit experiments
•Sum over paths
•Measurement problem
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 27 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 27

28. Single slit experiment
•Granular in small
•Smooth in large
•Some diffraction
from edges
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
28
Monday, March 21, 2011 28

29. Double slit experiment
•Interference
pattern is present
but is emergent,
not obvious
•Attempts to see
“which slit” the
photon went thru
will destroy the
interference
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 29 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 29

30. Sum over paths
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 30 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
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31. Different rules for particles & us?
Aren’t we made of particles?
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 31 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 31

32. Typology of time machines
0 or more time circuits
•Self-consistency
•Time travel or mere
retrodiction
•Mechanism
•Role of observer
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 26
32 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 32

33. Very simple time
machine
•Requirements
•Construction of the time machine
•The world matrix
•Applications
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 33 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 33

34. Requirements
1) Locally reasonable Free will
2) Globally self-consistent No paradoxes
3) Really is a time machine Not just retrodiction
4) No magic Includes observer
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 34 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 34

35. Mark I Time Machine
Lab
World
Control
Time Loop
Effect
Mysterious
Stuff
Decision
Measurement
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 35 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 35

36. Four cases
Decision Effect
Success,
regardless
Failure,
regardless
Self-fulfilling
prophecy
Self-defeating
prophecy
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 36 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 36

37. Time machine, lab, &
world qubits
QT ⊗ QL
Control
QL ⊗ QW
Effect
QL ⊗ QW
Decision
QT ⊗ QL
Measurement
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 37 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 37

38. The world as matrix
 0 0   1 1 
S= F=
 1 1 
  0 0 

 W00 W01 
W =  QW
 W10
 W11 

 1 0   0 1 
O=  P=
 0 1   1 0 

 q0 
QW =  
 q1 
 
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 38 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 38

39. Quantizing the world
•For success & failure, there is no impact of
the decision: the decision qubit is lost in the
environment.
•For self-fulfilling (O), the quantum
mechanical matrix is 1, which passes up
and down through.
•For self-defeating (P), the quantum
mechanical matrix is the spin-x matrix,
which flips up & down.
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 39 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 39

40. A Market for Paradox
Day 1 Day 2 Day 7 Day 8
Up Down Bubble! Crash!
…
Buy Sell Buy 50/50
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 40 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 40

41. Applications
•Tests of the intersection
of general relativity &
quantum mechanics
•Implications for
quantum computing
•Deeper understanding of
philosophic issues
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 41 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 41

42. Radical conservatism
Lab
World
Time Loop
+ =
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 42 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 42

43. Thanks!
•Brent Warner
•Ferne Cohen Welch
•NASA
•Jonathan Smith, Ed & Marguerite Rutkowski,
Walt Mankowski, Tom Purdom, Mark
Wolverton, David Bertanni, Graham
Ashmead, Shelley Handen, Bruce Bloom,…
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 43 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 43

44. Author Title Year
Thorne Black Holes & Time Warps 1994
Visser Lorentzian Wormholes 1994
Time machines : time travel in physics,
Nahin 1997
metaphysics, and science fiction
Gott Time Travel in Einstein’s Universe 2001
Introduction to Quantum Mechanics: a
Tannor 2007
time dependent perspective
Toomey The New Time Travelers 2007
Carroll From Eternity to Here 2010
Temporal Paradoxes - John Ashmead 44 http://www.timeandquantummechanics.com
Monday, March 21, 2011 44