By Tim R. Swartz
Scientists from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) and the University of Vienna believe they have demonstrated the feasibility of time travel via the realm of quantum physics.
In a series of recent papers, Miguel Navascués of ÖAW and Philip Walther of the University of Vienna have been exploring the concept of accelerating and reversing the flow of time at a subatomic level.
In an interview with the Spanish-language publication El País, Navascués attempted to clarify the phenomenon using the analogy of watching a film.
“In a theater (classical physics), a movie is projected from beginning to end, regardless of what the audience wants,” he said. “But at home (the quantum world), we have a remote control to manipulate the movie. We can rewind to a previous scene or skip several scenes ahead.”
Using a device called a “quantum switch,” scientists “evolve” a photon as it passes through a crystal. This way, the photon reverts to its previous state before completing the journey. The goal is to manipulate the states of quantum particles, which the scientists refer to as “time translation.”
The entire process is exceedingly complex to monitor and observe, even at a subatomic level. Just observing a system causes its alteration. Once altered, its progress through time becomes unrecordable.
Elaborating on their approach to advancing in time, Navascués explained: “To make a system age ten years in one year, you must derive the other nine years from somewhere. In a year-long experiment involving ten systems, you can extract one year from each of the first nine systems and allocate them all to the tenth. At the end of the year, the tenth system will have aged ten years, while the other nine will remain unchanged from the experiment’s outset.”
Source: “Scientists have actually discovered how to time travel,” by Harry Fletcher - Indy100, Feb 27, 2023
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