Physicists have since long pursued the possibilities of time travel, a seemingly impossible thing to achieve in the eyes of the masses. While the practicality of such an event is still a distant science, scientists have proved time travel to be possible in theories.
One major challenge in all such theories is the creation of a paradox. ¡°Say you traveled in time, in an attempt to stop COVID-19¡¯s patient zero from being exposed to the virus,¡± explains Dr. Fabio Costa from the School of Mathematics and Physics at the?University of Queensland. ¡°If you stopped that individual from becoming infected ¡ª that would eliminate the motivation for you to go back and stop the pandemic in the first place.¡±
¡°This is a paradox ¡ª an inconsistency that often leads people to think that time travel cannot occur in our Universe,¡± Costa said. ¡°Some physicists say it is possible, but logically it¡¯s hard to accept because that would affect our freedom to make any arbitrary action,¡± Costa said.
It would basically mean you can time travel, but no action can be taken that could possibly cause a paradox to occur. A paradox-free time travel was thus, not believed to be possible, that is, until now.
Dr Costa, along with an undergraduate student at the University of Queensland by the name of Germain Tobar, has come up with a mathematical model that proves that such paradox-free time travel is theoretically possible.
In his study, now published in Classical and Quantum Gravity, Tobar explains that knowing the state of a system at a particular time can tell us the entire history of the system. For example, knowing the current position and velocity of an object free falling under the force of gravity, can help us calculate where it will be at any point of time.
¡°However, Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts the existence of time loops or time travel ¨C where an event can be both in the past and future of itself,¡± Tober explains.? This essentially disproves the study of dynamics altogether.?As per the current science, both theories cannot be true simultaneously.
Tobar says that he has been puzzled over this for years, on how ¡°the science of dynamics can square with Einstein¡¯s predictions.¡± He wondered - ¡°is time travel mathematically possible?¡±
A possible answer could be a unified theory, a theory that reconciles both traditional dynamics and Einstein¡¯s Theory of Relativity.
On these lines, Tobar and Dr. Costa have now come up with a study that claims to have found a way to ¡°square the numbers.¡± As per Dr Costa, these calculations could be a big break for science.
¡°The maths checks out ¨C and the results are the stuff of science fiction,¡± Dr Costa said.
While the math?of the research is pretty complex, it points to a very fundamental possibility - a time travel with no paradox arising from any of the actions. The researchers instead say that it is possible ¡°for events to adjust themselves to be logically consistent with any action¡± that the time traveler?makes in the past or the future.
Tobar cites an example - ¡°In the coronavirus patient zero example, you might try and stop patient zero from becoming infected, but in doing so you would catch the virus and become patient zero, or someone else would.¡±
¡°No matter what you did, the salient events would just recalibrate around you. This would mean that ¨C no matter your actions - the pandemic would occur, giving your younger self the motivation to go back and stop it.
Tobar asserts that no matter how hard one tries to create a paradox, the events ¡°will always adjust themselves¡± to avoid any inconsistency in the Universe.?
¡°The range of mathematical processes we discovered show that time travel with free will is logically possible in our universe without any paradox,¡± he says.