Selected Honorable Mentions from the Annual Essay Competition of the Gravity Research Foundation for the Year 2011No Access

TIME AND IRREVERSIBILITY IN AN ACCELERATING UNIVERSE

GUSTAVO E. ROMERO

Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía, (IAR, CCT La Plata, CONICET), C.C. No. 5, 1894, Villa Elisa, Buenos Aires, Argentina

FCAyG, Observatorio de La Plata, Paseo del Bosque s/n, CP 1900 La Plata, Argentina

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and

DANIELA PÉREZ

Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía, (IAR, CCT La Plata, CONICET), C.C. No. 5, 1894, Villa Elisa, Buenos Aires, Argentina

FCAyG, Observatorio de La Plata, Paseo del Bosque s/n, CP 1900 La Plata, Argentina

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https://doi.org/10.1142/S021827181102055XCited by:4 (Source: Crossref)

Abstract

It is a remarkable fact that all processes occurring in the observable universe are irreversible, whereas the equations through which the fundamental laws of physics are formulated are invariant under time reversal. The emergence of irreversibility from the fundamental laws has been a topic of consideration by physicists, astronomers and philosophers since Boltzmann's formulation of his famous "H" theorem. In this paper, we shall discuss some aspects of this problem and its connection with the dynamics of spacetime, within the framework of modern cosmology. We conclude that the existence of cosmological horizons allows a coupling of the global state of the universe with the local events determined through electromagnetic processes.

This essay received an honorable mention in the 2011 Essay Competition of the Gravity Research Foundation. It was refereed, not as regular IJMPD research paper, but as an essay.

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