PhilSci Archive

Time Travel and Consistency Constraints

Kutach, Douglas (2002) Time Travel and Consistency Constraints. [Preprint]

[img] Microsoft Word (.doc)
Kutach.doc

Download (2MB)

Abstract

The possibility of time travel, as permitted in General Relativity, is responsible for constraining physical fields beyond what the laws normally require. In the special case where time travel is limited to a single object returning to the past and interacting with itself, consistency constraints can be avoided if the dynamics is continuous and the object's state space satisfies a certain topological requirement: that all null-homotopic mappings from the state-space to itself have some fixed point. Where consistency constraints do exist, no new physics is needed to enforce them. All one needs for their accommodation is to grant a kind of law-like status to some kinds of global boundary conditions.


Export/Citation: EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL
Social Networking:
Share |

Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Kutach, Douglas
Keywords: Relativity Theory, Physics, Time Travel
Depositing User: Program Committee
Date Deposited: 23 Mar 2003
Last Modified: 13 Sep 2015 15:46
Item ID: 1081
Date: 2002
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/1081

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item