Time is a special thing. It is always with us. We live in it. It surrounds us, we can't get rid of it. It seems to be part of the phy...
Time is a special thing. It is always with us. We live in it. It surrounds us, we can't get rid of it. It seems to be part of the physical world. It seems to be on a par with space, it has also been given its own dimension. Our universe has three space and one time dimension. This is the only way our physical formulas are correct.
The time is still strange. We can measure, but we always find that it spends. We are constantly going through time as a dimension, but only in one direction. In principle, we could stand on it, and in principle, even go back in time, but for us, for complex systems, time always passes. However, there are also physical systems in which time stands. Moreover, there are physical systems in which time is reversible. Physical systems, if we define time as a dimension, can go forward in time, stand in it, or go back in it.
Time behaves like an existing physical entity, yet strange and elusive. It is with us in this world, regulating and directing everything, yet we only experience its effects but do not know the time itself. It exists as a spirit. Maybe not?
What is the world that behaves exactly like ours, but in which time, as physical reality, does not exist? Could we describe the world without time in it? Could we describe our world without time?
Let’s take the properties of time in order and try to replace them with some physical process so that we can eliminate time as a physical reality.
One-dimensional extent
The one-dimensional structure of time means that time has two directions (forward and backward) in which things can move or stand in one place.
Let’s try to replace the one-dimensional structure of time with another physical description. Let time be the order of events. Let us replace time as an existing physical entity with a series of events built on each other in our world.
With this, the one-dimensional property of time can be explained, replaced, and interpreted in a physical way independent of time. The sequence of successive events takes over the role of time, and in this case, the physical reality of time is the (apparently one-dimensional) sequence of changes, movements, interactions, i.e., events. The one-dimensional existence of time is a consequence of this assumption.
Systems can be classified differently in terms of time, which we now interpret as a series of events.
In physical systems where there is no change, there is no movement where no event takes place, we can say that the system is standing in time. For these systems, time as a physical reality is unnecessary and cannot be interpreted as a process.
(Such systems are difficult to find in our world because the necessary existence of thermodynamic zero-point energy and the basic law of quantum theory on indeterminacy practically excludes the existence of systems in which there is no motion, no change. We see movements, changes, events everywhere in the world. Maybe that's why time is such a deeply ingrained concept.)
In the case of physical systems in which there are movements, changes, events take place at the micro-level compared to the size of the system, but at a size comparable to the size of the system these changes do not change the properties of the system, although time defined as a series of events can be interpreted at the micro-level in these systems, at the macro level these systems do not change, they stand in time. These are equilibrium systems.
At the macro level, time does not pass in physical systems in which the movements are cyclical, the changes are periodic, and the states are constantly repeated. Within a cycle we can distinguish different states, thus within a cycle we can say that time is happening, however, spanning several cycles, there is no direction of time in these systems either.
If we look at time as a series of events, we can go back in time, time can be reversed. In any physical system in which we reverse the direction of movements and changes - our physical laws allow us to do so, there are no physical limitations that would make this impossible in principle - those systems can seemingly go back in time.
The one-way time of complex systems can also be explained immediately if the time is defined as a series of events. Events always happen in complex systems, which makes the system complex. The time seen as a series of events thus passes through them. One of the basic laws of our physical world is that a change free from external influences always takes place in such a way that the final state is at a lower energy level than the initial state. Changes occur in the systems as long as there is a lower energy level for the system. In such systems, events move to lower energy levels, events have a spontaneous direction, time is one-way, we can say it spends.
This statement is also true for complex systems where the internal energy does not seem to change, the system does not enter a lower energy state, but during internal chaotic movements, the system moves in the direction of the most probable internal arrangement without external intervention, i.e. the entropy of the system increases. In such systems, microscopic movements do not have a preferred direction, yet macroscopically the system develops in a well-defined direction. In such systems, we can define the concept of the passage of time through the direction of macroscopic events. In such systems, in order to reverse the direction of time, we must increase order and create a more unlikely state by investing external energy. And with that, we also gave direction to the events. We can say that the time for describing events, as a feature of the concept, moves forward when the event occurs on its own, and backwards in time when the new state can only be created with an external energy investment.
The one-dimensional property of time can be matched to a series of events. In complex systems, the direction of time is the direction of spontaneous changes that become a feature of time defined as a series of events.
Time as a measure
In our world, however, time is a more stubborn thing than to be simply replaced by a series of events. Time seems to be an existing physical thing because it has a measure. There are physical processes that last for a set period of time.
Consider, for example, the building blocks of our world, the elementary particles. For most of them, time exists, passes, spends, they change on their own. There are also elementary particles which, if they do not interact, their existence is not affected by time, they are eternal (at least they seem to be).
An example of such an eternal particle is the electron. We know nothing about the internal structure of the electron, we have no idea about it, we only know the properties of the electron. And we view the electron as an eternal particle that it does not transform into something else by itself. Even if a process, a change, an event inside the electron takes place, the initial and end states are the same, and the intermediate states, if any, do not affect the external properties of the electron.
And now let's look at another particle, the muon. A muon is a particle very similar to an electron, all of its properties are the same as an electron, only its mass, i.e. its internal energy, differs. The internal structure and processes of the muon, if any, must be identical with the electron since they are the same in all other physical properties except for mass, its internal energy. Except for the lifetime. For the muon, time exists and takes place. The muon ceases to exist after a specific time length (transforms spontaneously).
Nor is it most interesting in this process that a spontaneous change takes place since we have seen that a system is moving towards the lowest energy state in existence, but that the lifetime of the muon is a definite period of time. There is a measure of time for the muon as long as the muon exists. For muon, time is more than a series of events. Time also has a measuring unit.
Our goal is to describe our world without time as a physically existing entity. How can the unit of time be replaced by a physical process? Rhythm may be suitable for this. If there is a rhythmic physical process whose rhythm is a fixed duration, these durations are suitable to replace the unit of time.
The amount of time can be replaced by a precisely fixed cycle, a physically existing rhythm. However, a cycle can only be precisely fixed, it can become a stable rhythm if there is also a fixed speed at which the cycle takes place. There is such a basic speed in our world, and it is the measure of maximum speed. If the most basic cycles of nature adapt to this fixed velocity (e.g., the cyclic process can occur at this and only at this velocity), then there may be a stable, accurate rhythm specific to that particular physical system. In such a world, time, as a physically non-existent concept, will also have a property of measure, which measure becomes a feature of a given physical system.
Every cyclic physical process that takes place at a fixed speed will have a stable, precise rhythm that can play the role of a measure of time. An example of such a rhythmic physical process is electromagnetic vibration. We also use this physical process, the stable, precise cyclic nature of electromagnetic radiation, to measure time. The most accurate clocks, atomic clocks, work on this principle. Certain processes taking place in atoms are tied to very precise energy levels. The change of state between these energy levels results in electromagnetic radiation of well-defined energy and, consequently, well-defined frequency. Since electromagnetic radiation can only travel at a certain speed, the length, the duration of vibration will always be the same. By counting the vibrations, we can make an extremely precise clock.
The measuring property, the unit of time, becomes substitutable by a fixed-rate cyclic physical process.
Suppose that some process takes place inside the electron, and also inside the muon. In the case of the electron, the initial and final states of the process must be the same, i.e. the process must be cyclical in nature. The process should also be one that does not change the external properties of the electron. There are processes that do not change the external properties of a system, such as circular motion. Suppose that a process of circular motion takes place inside the electron, which takes place at a fixed velocity, so its period does not change, i.e. its rhythm is fixed. (This assumption is not entirely heresy, spin, one of the properties of the electron bears many similarities to circular motion, and the quantized nature of spin suggests the fixation of the period and rhythm of circular motion.) For the electron, if it had such an internal structure, time would stand. An electron with such a structure is an eternal particle.
In the case of the muon, if the initial and final states of this cyclic process are not at the same energy level, the muon is converted to the lower energy state. In this case, the muon will have a lifespan defined by the cyclic process. (With such an internal structure, the muon is an excited, higher-energy version of the electron, and in this case, the larger mass of the muon also makes immediate sense.)
Statistical time measure
However, the transformation of a muon, and in general a weak interaction-directed transformation, does not occur over a well-defined period of time, but according to a certain probability specific to that substance. Radioactive transformation at the level of individual particles is controlled by the rules of statistical randomness. We know that the lifespan of a muon is not a fixed duration, but can be characterized by a well-defined but average lifespan. Mean life is the average lifetime of all the particles of the unstable atomic species.
(Statistical randomness is a fundamental principle of quantum theory. Because quantum mechanical processes take place during radioactive transformation, statistical randomness is a natural consequence of the rules of radioactive transformation.)
In the case of radioactive transformation, if we examine a single particle, we cannot determine with certainty when the change occurs, the phenomenon being seemingly random. However, for many particles, a rule, a half-life rule, can be formulated. However, it also follows that if we examine only one particle, the transformation cannot be completely random either, the transformation of one particle is also controlled by some law.
What physical process can correspond to the probabilistic statistical nature of radioactive transformation? How can time be replaced by a physical process in the case of radioactive transformation?
We have seen before that if particles are characterized as a cyclic process, the property of the measure of time can be described as a physical process. We also use this model for radioactive decay.
Suppose that the change that creates the phenomenon of radioactive transformation is based on a physically existing, cyclic process. How can the rule of statistical randomness be fitted to such a process?
Assume that in the case of a physically existing cyclic process of radioactive transformation, the initial and final states are not always the same, but differ from the initial state by a well-defined, fixed probability. When the final state is different from the initial state, the particle undergoes a radioactive transformation. This assumption, how the system works, explains the rules of radioactivity. How?
When the initial and final states of the cycle do not differ, as described for the electron, the transformation never occurs, the particle is eternal. If, on the other hand, the cycle is such that the initial and final states differ only in a certain probability, then the given particle will change according to this probability. Its lifetime is regulated by the cyclic process, and the lifetime for a particle will not be a specific value.
The process can be thought of as using a dice. In the case of the dice, we can never be sure which side it falls on. However, looking at an increasingly longer series, the difference between the different sides occurring will become smaller.
If a similar to a dice probability process takes place during radioactive transformation, the lifetime of the particle will not be a fixed value, but a statistical rule can be formulated for many particles. During the radioactive transformation, in one cycle of the fixed-velocity cycle, nature makes a symbolic dice roll. A radioactive transformation occurs when a symbolic dice falls on a predetermined side. The rule of radioactive transformation that provides the role of time in the process is a random selection between the different outcomes of a fixed-duration cycle. If the change, the radioactive transformation, occurs only at a certain outcome, the process will be statistically random.
If such a randomly based physical process exists in nature, then time can be replaced by a physical process even in the case of radioactive transformation. This is exactly what the quantum world is like. In the quantum world, random is the basic law. And radioactive transformation is part of the quantum world. We do not know what specific physical process creates the random rule of the quantum world. Among the thoughts is an attempt to find that.
We could also replace time as a physically existing entity with a specific physical process in the case of radioactive transformation.
Time as a relative measure
However, we still cannot completely replace time with other physical processes. This is because time still has characteristics that require some interpretation, explanation, correspondence. One such property is that the speed of time is relative. The rhythm, the unit, the speed of the passing of time depends on the speed at which we move. This field is the science of the theory of special relativity.
It should be noted that the description of time as a dimension was born from the laws of special relativity. The special theory of relativity is easiest to understand and (mathematically) illustrate if we assume that time is a dimension equal to space. However, the way we understand and illustrate is a subjective thing, not necessarily the same as physical reality.
The relativity of the measure of time can be demonstrated by a well-known phenomenon based on the previously mentioned muon particle. Experiments show that the lifespan of a muon depends on how fast the particle travels.
What physical process can be used to replace the change in the measure of time as a function of speed?
The special theory of relativity characterizes the phenomenon precisely, but only in a descriptive way, describing time as a dimension.
To replace time with some physical process, suppose that the muon — and everything in general — has an internal clock, and as the speed of motion approaches the speed of light the slower this internal clock moves. (The speed of light is actually the fixed and maximum speed of our physical world at which light also propagates.)
The special theory of relativity formulates an exact mathematical formula for this phenomenon and illustrates it with coordinate systems in which time is a dimension. The formula says that if we look at an existing thing that is able to move in space at a slower speed than light, the faster that thing moves, the slower time passes for it. For these things, there is a fixed velocity that, if reached, time would stop for that physical object. This speed functions as an unreachable limit for them. And there are also physical things in our world that can only move at this maximum speed, not slower. The time stands for them.
(Formulas also allow for the existence of things that can move faster than a fixed speed, but for them this speed functions as an unreachable lower limit. This possibility is mathematical, not necessarily part of physical reality.)
Speed, the motion, is basically a relative property. Our world does not have a fixed point against which motion can be compared to an absolute way. Everything just moves relative to each other. The movement, and by it the speed, is relative.
However, we have a possibility of comparison to speed, and that is that we have a maximum speed in our world. It seems a surprising fact that there is a maximum speed, and also that if we move at any speed in our world, we always experience things moving at maximum speed are always moving at this maximum speed. Maximum speed is a strange property in the first place, strange that it exists at all. Speed is an additive property, velocities should simply be summed by the rules for adding vectors. The reality, however, is that summation of velocities is not a simple addition. If the rule were a simple vector addition, there would be no maximum of speed
The special theory of relativity solves this phenomenon in such a way that the speed of the passing time, which time is considered as part of our world and functions as a dimension of our world, depends on the speed at which we travel relative to the maximum speed. The formula is well known.
The special theory of relativity, which deals with smooth motions, interprets time as a dimension, which gives it independent existence. Time behaves as an independent dimension during movement. According to the special theory of relativity, without the physical reality of time, our world cannot be interpreted. However, we set ourselves the goal of describing our world without time as a physically existing thing. How can the time used in special relativity be eliminated?
The motion does not presuppose the existence of time, time is needed to describe motion. The concept of time is needed to define speed. To replace time as an existing dimension, let’s say that everything that exists in the world moves at the maximum speed characteristic of the world. In this case, time, as a physical entity required by the theory of special relativity, ceases to exist. In this case, time is just a concept we can use to describe movement.
But we find that things are not only able to move at maximum speed, but also slower. How can a constant speed motion move slower than its own speed? By creating cyclical, self-contained cycles.
Things in the world that are able to move slower than maximum speed are made up of one kind of elementary particle, fermions. Fermion is, for example, the electron mentioned in the previous example. We do not know the internal structure of the electron, perhaps it does not exist, but in the previous example we interpreted the existence of a measure of time as assuming the electron is a cyclic process, illustratively a circular motion that takes place at the maximum speed of nature. This structure based on a motion is able to replace time as an existing dimension, the relative passage of time, the change in the rhythm of time in relation to the motion. How?
Suppose that the electron (and here we can generalize all fermions) is a cyclic cycle at the maximum speed of nature. It obviously follows from this assumption that the electron is able to travel slower in space than the maximum velocity, and it is also clear that this speed is the unattainable limit of the electron's velocity, since if the electron would move at this maximum velocity, the cycle that creates the electron could not close in space, it could not be cyclic, the electron as a particle would cease to exist. (If the process does not close on its own, the particle travels at its maximum speed. There are particles that can only travel at the maximum speed of nature, these are bosons.)
The change in the rhythm of time as a function of velocity, as a consequence, results from this structure. Suppose that the cycle that creates the electron stands in space, not changing its location. (The assumption is just a thought experiment, as there is no fixed point in space against which we can determine motion.) In this case, the cycle would take the shortest possible path to close, the rhythm of the inner clock being the shortest, the inner clock running the fastest, the internal time passes the fastest.
As the electron moves, travels in space, the cyclic circular motion at a fixed velocity must travel a greater distance for the cycle to close. The rhythm, i.e. the unit of time, becomes longer, the inner time slows down. As the speed of the movement of an electron in space approaches the speed of the cycle that creates the electron, the constant velocity of circular motion travels more and more as the circle closes, so we can say that more and more time must elapse to complete a cycle.
For an electron with such a structure, the rhythm of time, the time required to close the cycle, depends on the extent to which the electron moves to its maximum velocity.
Of course, for the electron, the rhythm of time is the rhythm of its own cycle. For the electron, time takes place in its own rhythm, or we can say that for the electron, time depends on the internal clock of the electron, time goes in its own rhythm. For the electron, and for every fermion, and for everything that is made up of fermions, this model has an internal clock, and this own clock has a well-defined rhythm, which for these systems is its own unique passage of time.
Systems made up of fermions do not have the same clock, the rhythms of different types of particles are different, but the rhythm of the internal clock of structures made up of moving fermions changes in synchrony as their motion changes. For systems moving together, time passes in the same way, and this time will be their own time, to which all other systems’ own time, their own internal clock.can be compared to.
Since I am standing in relation to myself, I find that the internal time of any other system that does not move with me is slower than that of my internal clock. And if we are both moving relative to something, instead of simply adding the velocities, we should use the formula formulated in the special theory of relativity according to the changed rhythm of the internal clock operating according to the geometric property of the cyclic process. The rules of special relativity are consequences of this physical structure.
If the motion of the particle is not uniform, the rhythm of the internal clock will change continuously.
If elementary particles are interpreted as a cyclical cycle, time as a physically existing dimension also becomes redundant. The movement-dependent own time - the descriptive principle of relativity - can be characterized as concrete, physically interpretable process. The relation of time as its internal rhythm to movement thus becomes interpretable for any type of movement, whether steady or accelerating. In this way, time is related to movements as a physically existing entity as a dimension can be eliminated. The motion-related property of time can be interpreted without the physical reality of time.
Gravity and time
Let us continue to map the properties of time to physical processes and examine the relationship between time and gravity. Time is also affected by gravity. The stronger the gravity, the slower the time passes, the slower the clocks go.
Gravity is not motion. However, as it was Albert Einstein’s recognition, that gravity could also be interpreted as an accelerating motion. This property of our world looks like a coincidence of the properties of gravity and accelerating motion, seems contingent, it seems to be a unique, special feature of our world. Our view of nature does not currently explain the relationship. However, the relationship, although we do not currently know the cause, probably exists. A deeper understanding of the universe, the application of new theories may make this connection interpretable.
The theory of gravity is dealt with by the theory of general relativity. The theory of general relativity describes gravity as the deformation of space-time, where the deformation of space and time is caused by the matter and energy present. The matter and energy present cause the dimensions to be distorted, space to be distorted, and time to move more slowly.
We want to replace the physical existence of time with another physical process in relation to gravity and time. Suppose again that time does not exist, so time as a dimension does not exist and therefore cannot be distorted.
However, the fact exists. In a stronger gravitational space, clocks move more slowly. We still continue to accept that space is distorted by the energy in it (matter is also energy). We have already used in the previous example that movement made in space influences the inner clock of things, the inner rhythm of things, the way we perceive the passage of time. We do not know what physical change space undergoes under the influence of gravity (the energy present) (and in this thought replacing the physical time does not deal with it either, we only assume that it is). The theory of general relativity describes the phenomenon as a distortion of space, of the dimensions of space, and thus of the size of space.
The dimensions of the material are determined by internal interactions. Suppose this is also true for elementary particles. It is an accepted part of our cosmological worldview that the size of material structures built up by internal forces is not affected by the expansion of space. We use this assumption for space distortion by gravity.
Suppose that space is distorted by gravity so that its size becomes smaller. Since (we assume) the size of the material structures is not affected by the change in the size of the space, if the dimensions of the space decrease, the material structures will be relatively larger compared to space. The material-specific cyclic cycle discussed earlier must thus travel a larger distance in space to close the cycle, which takes longer in the case of a cycle at a constant speed. Space shrinks due to gravity, the cycle of the cycle becomes longer, the rhythm slows down, the amount of time increases. The measure of the assumed time becomes slower.
In the present case, in which we examine the relationship between gravity and time, it can be seen that the length of the cycle that creates the rhythm increases due to the shrinkage of the space caused by gravity. Based on the model, the presence and magnitude of gravity slows down the passage of time.
The gravitational interaction with time as an existing entity can be replaced by another physical process. The mathematical description of the relationship is described in the mathematical formulas of the theory of general relativity.
(The general theory of relativity does not assign a specific physical background to the distortion of space, it only describes the phenomenon. Among the thoughts is a hypothesis that discusses the relationship between gravity and space. If the hypothesis is correct, gravity energy) and the relationship between space can be described as a physical process. In the model, gravity and acceleration can be easily matched, and thus the principle of equivalence is a consequence of the hypothesis.)
Time travel in a world without time
Assuming that time exists as a physical dimension, the mathematical equations of general relativity allow us to travel through time for certain theoretically possible physical configurations. Time travel logically means that the time traveler leaves the actual time dimension and returns to it at another location, performing a time jump. The possibility of time travel leads to paradoxes that are difficult to resolve in a world that carries time as a dimension.
Time travel is also possible in a world without time, but since time as a physically existing entity does not exist in this world, the process of time is replaced by a causal sequence of events, the jump in time dimension becomes incomprehensible. The jump in time, the movement without the causal process of cause and effect is incomprehensible and is therefore inherently impossible in this world. Such series of events that would lead to causal paradoxes cannot unfold in a world without time.
Of course, even in a world without time, it is possible to move forward or backward in time following causal events. If the rate of my own rhythm slows down, my own time passes more slowly, it is as if there is a quicker pass in time, as if I were going into the future. However, events must have a continuous causal relationship with each other. A similar phenomenon is possible if the rhythm of my own time accelerates by movement.
The direction of events can also be reversed, for example by investing external energy: In a well-defined environment, this can cause as if time is going backward. Time does not go backward in this world either, only the events take place in reverse order.
Can we go back in time in such a timeless world? Apparently yes. Given the rules of statistical randomness in the quantum world, the laws of physics allow events to happen backward, but this is not really a return to the past, causal events continue to build on each other. Leap into the past, so movement in time without causation is in principle incomprehensible and therefore impossible.
According to the classical theory of relativity, time travel, which would be possible by the movement faster than the speed of light, would be impossible in a world without time for several reasons. One reason is that even in a world without time, there is a fixed speed that can only be the maximum at which faster movement is not possible. The other, even more fundamental reason is that a return to the past moving faster than the fastest speed is possible only if time as a dimension physically exists. In our world without time, we have ruled this out.
In an imaginary world without the existence of time, the paradoxes of time travel lose their meaning.
The world without time
Time can be explained by the existence of physical processes, time as an existing part of our world can be eliminated.
We’ve replaced time with a seemingly more complicated thing. However, Occam's razor is not valid here. The simpler is not necessarily closer to reality. In the case of time, we did not replace a simple thing with a more complex one, but interpreted a concept, a physically non-existent thing, explained it through an assumed physical reality, and thereby possibly got closer to knowing the real world.
Time may not be what is described here. Time may be what we think is now accepted or even something else. The purpose of this writing was to imagine a world as ours seems, but time as physical reality does not exist in it. Such a world can exist.
The grid model discussed between thoughts is a world in which the physical processes discussed above, which also replace time as an existing physical entity, exist. In the grid model, particles are cyclic cycle processes, and the consequence of the model is the maximum fundamental velocity. Is this our world? Not impossible.
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