Physical Origins of Time Asymmetry [Paperback]

An interdisciplinary survey of the variety of inter-connected phenomena defining arrows of time, and their possible explanations in terms of underlying time-symmetric laws of physics.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. This volume reconciles these profoundly conflicting facts.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. This volume reconciles these profoundly conflicting facts.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, electromagnetism, 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.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. ThlcL