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Time may actually be one big illusion
For long years, scientists have been perplexed by time. As everything proceeds down its unquestionable arrow towards the destruction of entropy, does everything exist meaningfully apart from our awareness of it? The “spilled milk” of the oddities of time cannot be returned to the jug.
- Is the known world made entirely of layered, mutually entangled systems?
- Quantum physicists are perplexed by the passage of time and try to fit it into a coherent paradigm.
- According to a bizarre hypothesis, time seems to pass because we are connected to everything.
Italian scientists working under the direction of Alessandro Coppo have published new findings in the peer-reviewed journal Physical Review A of the American Physical Society, which aims to bring one theory of time closer to reality. Coppo has been researching this theory—known as the Page and Wootters mechanism—for many years. This concept from quantum mechanics was first proposed in 1983.
Quantum physics demands that time be fixed, but general relativity (in the model of classical physics) allows time to be a variable, similar to the perception-dependent difference between time on Earth and time in space in narratives like Interstellar. This implies that time needs to be independent and have a means of measurement instead of being a dependent variable, which is something that is determined by an external attribute, such as local gravity or an object’s distance from Earth.
It can seem illogical to do this. Ultimately, quantum mechanics is seen as the more recent version of reality—the one that extends the fundamental principles of physics to make sense of the classical model. However, time plays a special part in quantum systems. Ultimately, everything that is objectively defined at a given time is connected through quantum interactions to create a representation of the entire universe, provided you extend your zoom far enough.
Coppo and his colleagues transform the Page and Wootters technique into a workable clock design in their study. A clock in quantum physics is anything that can be measured and exhibits consistent, predictable behavior; it is not much like the clock you wear on your wrist or hang in your office. (For instance, this article from 2021 in Quanta lists progressively foul waste as a type of clock!)
According to New Scientist, Page and Wootters questioned whether any discernible passage of time is a sign of entanglement because our universe is so quantum entangled with itself. Furthermore, they proposed that, simply by witnessing the passage of time, we are already involved in that entanglement because, to an outsider, the entangled system would appear to be motionless.
Thus, the component of the entangled system that displays the passage of time is the “clock.”
It is understandable why this hypothesis has remained largely theoretical for more than forty years. Scientists took well-known physics equations and limited them to circumstances that corresponded with the Page and Wootters scenario in order to transform it into something with measurements based on actual observations. They looked at two entangled but non-interacting systems, one of which is a harmonic oscillator, such as a pendulum or a quartz watch.
Their method might work both in classical and quantum mechanics since each quantum system aligns with classical physics when a sufficient number of particles are added, or when the system exceeds a threshold known as “macroscopic,” which is based on mass.
That’s significant because it implies that everything in our immediate environment is entangled if our entire, macroscopic universe conforms to this definition of time based on entanglement. Anything that is to be a part of our observable reality would have to be entangled almost by definition. And it would imply that everything we perceive in the distance—regardless of how far away it is—is fundamentally connected to us.
read also: Harvard academics speculate that Aliens may secretly be living underground or posing as people.
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Time May Actually Be One Big Illusion, Says a New Study (msn.com)