Can we travel to the past? Irreversible physics along closed timelike curves

Carlo Rovelli (1, 2)

1 CPT - Centre de Physique Théorique - UMR 7332
2 CPT - E4 Gravité quantique

The Einstein equations allow solutions containing closed timelike curves. These have generated much puzzlement and suspicion that they could imply paradoxes. I show that puzzlement and paradoxes disappears if we discuss carefully the physics of the irreversible phenomena in the context of these solutions.

Domaines: Relativité Générale et Cosmologie Quantique [gr-qc]

Carlo Rovelli. Can we travel to the past? Irreversible physics along closed timelike curves. 2020. ⟨hal-02446158⟩