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posted by n1 on Thursday September 04 2014, @09:49AM   Printer-friendly
from the what-is-time? dept.

What would happen to you if you went back in time and killed your grandfather? A model using photons reveals that quantum mechanics can solve the quandary—and even foil quantum cryptography.

Recent experiments offer tentative support for time travel's feasibility—at least from a mathematical perspective. The study cuts to the core of our understanding of the universe, and the resolution of the possibility of time travel, far from being a topic worthy only of science fiction, would have profound implications for fundamental physics as well as for practical applications such as quantum cryptography and computing.

The source of time travel speculation lies in the fact that our best physical theories seem to contain no prohibitions on traveling backward through time. The feat should be possible based on Einstein's theory of general relativity, which describes gravity as the warping of spacetime by energy and matter. An extremely powerful gravitational field, such as that produced by a spinning black hole, could in principle profoundly warp the fabric of existence so that spacetime bends back on itself. This would create a "closed timelike curve," or CTC, a loop that could be traversed to travel back in time.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/time-travel-simulation-resolves-grandfather-paradox/

[Related]: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/according-to-current-phys/

[Abstract]; http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140619/ncomms5145/full/ncomms5145.html

 
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  • (Score: 2) by Blackmoore on Thursday September 04 2014, @01:50PM

    by Blackmoore (57) on Thursday September 04 2014, @01:50PM (#89344) Journal
    I am sorry sir. I'm going to have to ask you to put your.. lamp.. back into your pants.

    this isnt 4chan.
    Starting Score:    1  point
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    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 04 2014, @05:36PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 04 2014, @05:36PM (#89422)

    0 - (-energy) = energy.

    Using no energy at all, our equation nets us free energy AND time travel.