Emergence of Time

Foundations of Physics 50 (3):161-190 (2020)
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Abstract

Microphysical laws are time reversible, but macrophysics, chemistry and biology are not. This paper explores how this asymmetry arises due to the cosmological context, where a non-local Direction of Time is imposed by the expansion of the universe. This situation is best represented by an Evolving Block Universe, where local arrows of time emerge in concordance with the Direction of Time because a global Past Condition results in the Second Law of Thermodynamics pointing to the future. At the quantum level, the indefinite future changes to the definite past due to quantum wave function collapse events.

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George Ellis
Cambridge University (PhD)

Citations of this work

The Causal Closure of Physics in Real World Contexts.George F. R. Ellis - 2020 - Foundations of Physics 50 (10):1057-1097.
Questioning the Emergence of Time.Peter J. Riggs - 2024 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 55:1-10.
Physical Time and Human Time.George F. R. Ellis - 2023 - Foundations of Physics 54 (1):1-17.
Appearance of Thermal Time.Shigenori Tanaka - 2021 - Foundations of Physics 51 (2):1-12.

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References found in this work

Time and Chance.David Z. Albert - 2000 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
The Nature of the Physical World.A. Eddington - 1928 - Humana Mente 4 (14):252-255.
Neither Presentism nor Eternalism.Carlo Rovelli - 2019 - Foundations of Physics 49 (12):1325-1335.
Bluff Your Way in the Second Law of Thermodynamics.Jos Uffink - 2001 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 32 (3):305-394.

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