Time machines and time travel have always been a significant element of science fiction--but is it possible in real life, especially with the technology that we have today?
The Second Law of Thermodynamics and the Arrow of Time
In a report by Science Alert, in 2019, a group of physicists performed an experiment that could hopefully reveal the origin of the "arrow of time," which could help determine whether there is a possibility of developing a set of rules that could circumvent the irreversibility of time and if we could use that protocol.
In other words, it could help scientists know whether time travel is possible, and if we could use any protocol to build a time machine.
According to the report, the group of scientists was able to return the state of a quantum computer just a quarter of a second into the past, which means they were able to reverse time on a quantum scale.
In addition, the team also calculated the probability of an electron spontaneously traveling back to its recent past in an empty interstellar space. The result of their research is now published in the journal Scientific Reports.
They were able to achieve the results by designing a quantum algorithm that included a complex conjugation and included it on an IBM quantum computer, thus being able to demonstrate a "backward time dynamics for an electron scattered on a two-level impurity."
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Pushing the Limits
Researchers from the US, Switzerland, and Russia teamed up to find a way to break or at least bend the Second Law of Thermodynamics, one of the most fundamental laws of physics that explains why hot things get cold over time, among others.
To review, the Second Law states that an isolated system increases entropy, or commonly known as disorder.
"This is one in a series of papers on the possibility of violating the second law of thermodynamics. That law is closely related to the notion of the arrow of time that posits the one-way direction of time from the past to the future," said Gordey Lesovik, a quantum physicist from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.
According to the physicist, the team began by describing a "perpetual motion machine" of some kind. The team also published a paper last December that discusses another violation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics through a device they called Maxwell's demon.
"The most recent paper approaches the same problem from a third angle: We have artificially created a state that evolves in a direction opposite to that of the thermodynamic arrow of time," the researcher added.
The Laws in Reverse
According to experts, virtually every other law except for the second one would still make sense even if they were reversed.
For example, two identical billiard balls could be recorded colliding and rebounding from each other in reverse, and it would still make sense. But seeing a reverse playback of cue ball breaking the pyramid would easily allow you to make sense of time.
The team's series of studies about pushing the limits of physical laws as we know it could ultimately help us understand the "flow" of the universe.
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