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Dr. Andrea Rocco, Associate Professor of Physics and Mathematical Biology at the University of Surrey and lead author of the study, stated: "One way to understand this is that when you consider a process like spilled milk spreading across a table, it is evident that time is moving forward. However, if you were to play that in reverse, like a movie, you would immediately recognize that something was amiss -- it would be difficult to believe that the milk could simply collect back into a glass.
However, there are processes, such as the motion of a pendulum, that appear equally believable when reversed. The paradox lies in the fact that, at the most fundamental level, the laws of physics are structurally similar to the pendulum; they do not provide an explanation for irreversible processes. Our research implies that despite our everyday experience suggesting time only moves in one direction, we are simply unaware that the opposite direction would have been equally plausible.
The study, published in Scientific Reports, examined the realm of subatomic particles and its interaction with the surrounding environment, referred to as an 'open quantum system'. Researchers investigated the underlying reasons for our perception of time moving in one direction and whether this perception originates from the principles of open quantum mechanics.
To make the problem more manageable, the researchers made two critical assumptions. Firstly, they treated the immense surroundings of the system in a way that allowed them to focus solely on the quantum system itself. Secondly, they assumed that the environment – akin to the vastness of the universe – is so vast that energy and information are irretrievably dissipated into it. This approach enabled them to investigate how time manifests as a one-way phenomenon, even though, at a microscopic level, time could theoretically operate in both directions.
-- suggesting that the direction of time may not be as unchangeable as it appears to us.
Thomas Guff, a postdoctoral researcher who spearheaded the calculations, stated:
The equations showed the same behavior, regardless of whether the system was moving forward or backward in time. On closer examination, we discovered that this behavior was unavoidable because a critical component of the equation, the "memory kernel," is inherently time-symmetrical.
We also discovered a small yet significant detail that is often overlooked - a time-discontinuous factor emerged that preserves the time-symmetry property. It's uncommon to encounter such a mathematical mechanism in a physics equation because it's not continuous, and it was striking to see it emerge so naturally.
The research presents a new viewpoint on one of the greatest enigmas in physics. Understanding the essence of time could have far-reaching consequences for quantum mechanics, cosmology and beyond.