Physical origins of time asymmetry : NATO Advanced Research workshop : Papers

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. 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 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 the 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. Edited By J.j. Halliwell, J. Pérez-mercader, W.h. Zurek. Includes Bibliographical References.