Resolution of causal paradoxes arising from opposing thermodynamic arrows of time

摘要

It was recently shown (L.S. Schulman, Phys. Rev. Lett. 83 (1999) 5419) that systems with opposite thermodynamic arrows of time could have moderate mutual interaction with neither destroying the order of the other. Such interaction includes signaling. Signals, however, may give rise to causal paradoxes, suggesting that "moderate" interaction may be impossible. Using the two-time boundary condition framework, we resolve the paradoxes. In one example, at a macroscopic level, we establish the existence of solutions to the appropriate boundary value problem. This result is extended to a class of microscopic problems. We also produce an example in which microscopic data are given and there is no solution. This is a different kind of resolution: there is no paradox because the events do not happen. Finally we discuss the differences between these cases. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. [References: 15]