Time Slips (3): Experiments in Time Travel?

Go back to November 22, 1963 and find out who was really in that 6th floor Depository window?

Hmmmm....an interesting proposition!


In the science fiction novel 'Lest Darkness Fall'  by L. Sprague de Camp,, the central character (Martin Padway) undergoes a time slip to 6th century Rome. The interesting aspect of this is that it is the Rome for which a definite history is known, since Padway used it to his advantage as he made his way in a strange environment. Hence, he knew what major political changes would occur, who was in charge and which factions were vying for control, including barbarians.

In other words, the template for his experience was not the same as the ones I've considered in the two earlier blog posts: an interphasing of two distinct parallel universes. As I conjectured, the experience of Charlotte Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain would be more a case of the women stepping into 1789 Versaille, but in an alternate universe. One briefly interphased with our own. The nature of their descriptions supported this hypothesis.

In the case of the fictional Padway, his memory and the ability to forecast events to unfold in 6th century Rome, disclosed that he didn't step into an alternate universe with an alternate past, but remained in this one, on the same Earth in fact. Otherwise the events that shaped ancient Rome would have been different and he'd not have been able to use his historical memory to any advantage

This brings up the questions, first, of whether time slips in this one universe (and Earth) are feasible, and  second, if so, are there experiments one might perform to exploit them - say to return to Dallas, in November, 1963 and interfere with the Kennedy assassination?

While Oxford physicist Michael Shallis, in his book 'On Time' doesn't elaborate at any length, he does provide a brief clue (p. 163-64) referring to "advanced waves moving back in time in counterpoint to their progressive and retarded partners."  He then goes on to write (ibid.):

"This interpenetration slips backward and forward in time simultaneously, seeming to defy the laws of matter and causality"

The notion of advanced and retarded waves, or potentials, is not new. In fact, every physics student taking his first Electricity and Magnetism course encounters them.  Indeed, from Maxwell’s E & M theory, we are fully enabled to make use of what are called “advanced potentials” defined in terms of:


V(r,t_a) = f1(r, T_a) and A(r, t_a) = f2(r, t_a)

Where t_a is the “advanced time”, t_a = t + r/c

And the f1, f2 are functions of the electric potential and vector potential, respectively.   In the advanced time, we ascertain conditions for the future potentials V(r,t_a)  based on the past, and are able to use them in appropriate calculations in the past. An evident violation of causality, though admittedly the sort of applications where these may be used are limited

What might be more directly relevant to time slips for the same universe involve the "offer" and "echo"waves proposed by John G. Cramer. The two interacting, interpenetrating wave forms might be expressed:

y(O)  + y(E) = Ö(2/π) e ^ωτ  +   Ö(2/π) e^{- ωτ}

The use of such waves, say in a putative role for time slips, would demand using something called Minkowski space-time, Minkowski envisioned a kind of hyperspace in which events do not just 'happen'. Rather, they already are embedded in the space-time metric (geometry) and one comes across them, like towns along a highway (cf. Whittrow, G.J. 1972, The Nature of Time, Pelican Books, Great Britain, p. 103.)  For example, imagine the Minkowski temporal scale:

 

Past[-τ] <-------e1------e2--------e3-----> Future [+τ]

where e1, e2 and e3 are three events, say: e1 = Explosion of the Hindenburg dirigible, e2 = John F. Kennedy's assassination, and e3 = some future asteroid impact in the 21st century. In the Minkowski hyperspace these have always been on the timeline, which is traversed in the same way one would traverse a space. Thus, one encounters the various events on the timeline as s/he might encounter towns or villages along a highway.

Movement can occur in time or in space, and have a complementary (space or time) equivalent. For example, stay where you are and let one minute elapse on your watch. You have performed a 'movement in time' without a corresponding movement in space. We say you have traversed imaginary space. This imaginary space can easily be computed:

Im(x) = i(300,000 km/s x 60 s) = 18,000,000(i) km

That is, you have traversed 18 million imaginary kilometers or 11.25 million miles in imaginary space. (Im(x) is the symbolic representation for an imaginary space (x) transition). Now, think of a movement in real space, but none in time. Is this possible? Well, I can get out my telescope and observe the Moon instantly - bearing my consciousness upon it - without taking the time to travel there. For all intents and purposes I am there. In this case, an imaginary time interval is the result, and again can be computed:

Im(τ) = (i) 384,000 km/ 300,000 km/s = 1.28i sec

 

That is, 1.28 imaginary seconds to get there. I note here that this imaginary time interval is equivalent to a real space interval: 384,000 km (space distance to Moon) = 1.28 i seconds. Thus, imaginary time and real space are interchangeable. This has prompted at least one observer of the situation (to do with Minkowski spacetime) to observe (Whittrow, op. cit., p. 104.):

“In other words, the passage of time is merely to be regarded as a feature of consciousness that has no objective counterpart.”

 

This is important!  It suggests that although we might formulate an apparently real "temporal highway" - i.e. the Minkowksi timeline, that the reality is we can't use it in any objective fashion, say analogous to changing locations on an actual physical highway.  In this case, the only "time travel" one would be able to do is a limited form based on displaced consciousness. Since quantum mechanics fuses the role of observer with that observed, then a quantum displacement affecting consciousness could conceivably "transport" one to another time, say perhaps the day of Kennedy's assassination.

The problem is one would only access it as a conscious observer, as if watching passively from a TV screen, not as a participant. Moreover, to make it work it seems likely the inception would have to commence in the brain itself - say at a synapse- for which we already know the dimension of the synaptic cleft (200- 300 nm) is arond the scale for the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle to operate. From an initial energy emergence, say based on the energy-time uncerainty relation:

DE  Dt  £    ħ

One might then arrive at adequate energy, i.e.

DE     »   ħ/ Dt 

to initiate a temporal cascade or 'push' to displace one's conscious in time. Following this in a more comprehensive way would require using some kind of operator to generate variation in time as experienced by consciousness. David Finkelstein ( Quantum Sets and Clifford Algebras, in International Journal of Theoretical Physics, Vol. 21, Nos. 6/7, p. 489 ) has created an operator explicitly to vary time via ‘bracing’. The operator is called ‘the brace operator’, Br. To see how it works on an elementary level, select a quantum unit set (say of cardinality 1) over some sub-module S (1) of the Clifford algebra S, with basis B(1). Then it follows from application of Br, and its conjugate Br*:

Br* Br = 1 Br Br* = [unit] Br* Br - Br Br* = [non-unit]

 
A more graphic way to see this is as follows:

After 1 τ, Br = { }

After 2 τ, Br = { { } }

After 3 τ, Br = { { { } } }

where we define:   10^-43  s < τ <   10^-23 s


And we see that for the smaller values on the left side, for which Dt = D τ

enormous energy would be released.   Notice that the brace creation increases arithmetically as the unit tau increases. The operation Br, equivalent to C(b) in Grassman space, generates an elemental tau (τ) each time, starting from some initial fluctuation.   Might this fluctuation be willed? Perhaps, but more than likely it would be spontaneous. All of this is of course highly speculative, but one thing which isn't is the clear impossibility of actual physical time travel, by time slip or otherwise. 


 Yes, I'd originally planned to travel to Dachau sometime in the next 2 months, to attempt a time slip experiment. But I don't believe it would be wise to try it, even slipping into a parallel universe with Dachau on another Earth!  But it might yet be feasible to attempt a quantum -based displacement of consciousness - say back to Nov. 22, 1963.

TIME SLIPS (2): Flights of Fancy or Temporal Displacements Based on Real Physics?

In the diagram directly above there appears a two-slit  diffraction pattern  and also an associated intensity pattern showing the relative light intensity for the pattern -obviously with the central portion amplitude above the rest.

David Deutsch's arguments on p. 44 of his monograph ('The Fabric of Reality") basically contend that:

"there is no intrinsic difference between tangible and shadow photons: each photon is tangible in one universe and intangible in all the other parallel universes"

In his representation on p. 41 (Fig. 2.7), we see a similar pattern to the one given above, along with an additional pattern in which the dark interference fringes are much wider. He infers that "something must be coming through the second pair of slits (bear in mind two, 2-slit arrangements are set up in sequence) to prevent the light from the first pair reaching X? But what? We can find out with further experiments."

After a lengthy bit of reasoning, including successive tweaking of thought experiments, Deutsch arrives at "shadow photons from a parallel universe". He infers (p. 44) for at least one arrangement "at least a trillion shadow photons accompanying each tangible one."

He also is careful to distinguish the respective properties: (ibid.)

"Thus, we have inferred the existence of a seething, prodigiously complicated, hidden world of shadow photons. They travel at the speed of light, bounce off mirrors, are refracted by lenses, and are stopped by opaque barriers or filters of the wrong color. Yet they do not trigger even the most sensitive detectors. The only thing in the universe that a shadow photon can be observed to affect is the tangible photon it accompanies. That is the phenomenon of interference. Shadow photons would go entirely unnoticed were it not for this phenomenon."

In light of the above, we now return again to the experience of Charlotte Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain in experiencing a time slip transferring them from the year 1901 to 1789. (Previous blog). Moberly described a flat and lifeless terrain in her report and most importantly declares: "There were no effects of light and shade, and no wind stirred the trees".  What do we infer?

If there really were "no effects of light and shade" then it must mean that their surreal domain was in fact an inter-phased one for two parallel universes. In this domain we surmise that if they could have performed the sequential two slit diffraction experiment cited by Deutsch they'd have found instead a central large dark area and bright fringes. As opposed to a central bright region and dark fringes. In addition, we may infer this interphased domain was dominated by shadow photons over tangible ones but at different angles.  This is why "everything suddenly looked unnatural, therefore unpleasant; even the trees behind the building seemed to have become flat and lifeless ".

It is important to reiterate here, that according to the standard multiverse theory (based on cosmic inflation), there are basically an infinite number of parallel universes. In the hyper-toroid geometry (graphic shown in the previous blog)  these separate universes can be regarded as lines of longitude, since an infinite number of them can be fit around the circumference of the hyper-sphere.  If say, one somehow for some reason briefly overlapped another, one would expect an interphase condition. This then would permit a time slip to occur but it would not be between times in the same universe (say for the Brit pair between the 1901 and 1789 Earth as we know it) but between TWO distinct parallel universes. That is, they'd have slipped from 1901 in this universe with the Earth as it exists therin, to another (parallel) universe with the Earth as it existed in 1789.

Let's now explore the dynamics more closely, using the diagram shown at the very top, for two spaces in  algebraic homology:

T = S1 X S1

The first (space) is the circle all the way around the middle of the 'donut's body. The second (time) is the circle around a section of the donut itself. Here (diagram), the respective spaces (circles S1) define two dimensions for what we will call the global state space GL. Thus, we have:

GL = S1 X S1 = (SPACE) X (TIME)

The line marked 'Axis' defines the center of the toroidal space we are looking at. The important point is that the time cycle is mapped all along the (single) S1 cycle of space. The space cycle therefore defines all hyperdimensional cosmic time cycles that ever have, or will, exist. Evidently, there are an infinite number of such cycles, since an infinite number of points can be mapped onto the space cycle as well.

All cycles are identical in the infinite series (Σi Θi) but also different. Identical, since each cycle goes from 0 through 360 degrees, folding back on itself so that a particular beginning (Big Bang = 0) and ending (Big Crunch = 360°) for each universe occurs at one and the same point (0° = 360°). Hence the same initial and final coordinates apply to all cosmic cycles. Θ is thus a fixed dimension of the Young-model ‑hypertorus, much like time in the Minkowski universe. Indeed, in the hypertorus overview, any position can be fixed by two coordinates (φ, Θ) where the φ is used for space and Θ for time. In fact, since both are circles, it makes sense to assign them angles: one (φ) for space, the other (Θ) for time.


Consider now, the mapping for the phase space volume we called the global state space. It is the (topological) space of all possible times and all possible spaces, for all possible universes. Thus, it is an imaginary (in the mathematical sense!) space. Two possible events in this global state space might be designated:


Ξ = (φ, Θ) AND Ξ' = (φ',Θ')


By way of example, Ξ could be the assassination of Hitler, and Ξ' the event wherein Hitler escapes assassination. Either one is possible but not both simultaneously in the same cosmic cycle or universe! We already know we inhabit the cycle for which Ξ' holds, so the other (Ξ) cannot. The "pasts" are thus mutually exclusive, which further reinforces Hawking's "temporal censorship" postulate that one cannot go back and change the past.. The topological space of the hypertorus cosmos can therefore be represented by the global state space, a product of absolute hypertorus coordinate time (Θ) and 'all-space'(φ):


GL = Θ X φ


Now, the set of specific times t_i C Θ_i, and the set of specific 4-dimensional spaces R_i C φ_i, so the space of all local states, L is the product space of four dimensional spaces and specific times:


L = R X t


We now need to look at is how L and GL are related, and the space and time sets within them:  L Ì GL That is, the local state space L is contained within the global state space GL, but can never be equal to it The same applies to the subsidiary spaces: R in relation to φ, and the specific times: t in relation to Θ.


For example, for Θ, there is some spatio-temporal matrix M with generalized dimensional indices {x0, x1, x2, x3}. No one of these is 'time' specifically and uniquely. Rather, "time" arises when the three space indices have been assigned (i.e. if φ= {x1, x2, x3}, then Θ = {x0}. In effect, as S. Auyang observes: "the structure M is too primitive to confer special meaning on the time dimension. M is not in time, it is all times." (How is Quantum Field Theory Possible?, Oxford University Press, 1995, p. 169). By contrast, 't carries the load of temporal significance'. (Note here that when the 4 dimensional indices for each parallel universe are defined, then it becomes possible to more rigorously separate the parallel universes, i.e. in terms of their respective physical constants, specific times of origin, and duration.)


"Time" then is by no means as straightforward as often assumed, especially if one can plausibly have both time and space uncertainty - i.e. the Heisenberg Indeterminacy principle applicable to each. If this be so, then one can conjecture unusual conditions in which both space and time indeterminacy for two adjacent parallel universes allow for brief interphasing. If a sentient person, human, happens to be at such a location when this indeterminacy of space and time occurs, he can experience a "time slip".


Again, we cannot say the person or persons are really "going back in time". Instead, only that they have transitioned from a current coordinate Θ1 in one universe to Θ2 in other. While Θ2 appears to be "backward" in time by the reckoning of the person at Θ1 it is not really in relation to their own universe.


Part 3: Can I do a time slip to take me to the Kennedy assassination in any universe?

Time Slips(1) : Flights of Fancy or Temporal Displacements Based on Real Physics?

Diagram of the multiverse with two localization angles which may be used to pinpoint parallel universes within it. Is it possible for two longitude lines (each designating a parallel universe) to be so close together that an interphasing is possible? Might this account for the phenomenon of "time slips"? 

In L. Sprague de Camp's classic scifi novel  'Lest Darkness Fall', (1939), a 20th century professor - Martin Padway -  finds himself suddenly hurled back to the Roman Empire in the sixth century by encountering a "time slip" in Rome. While doing the tourist thing in Rome near the Coliseum, he's suddenly transported back in time. He is forced to live by his wits, eventually using his knowledge of Latin and how to make paper (from vellum), to produce a newspaper.

The idea of time slips received more fact-based currency with the publication of Oxford physicist Michael Shallis' book, 'On Time'. Therein, (pp. 161-62) Shallis documents actually reported incidents of factual people who - somehow or some way- found themselves cast back into the past. Among the more famous is the incident involving two women from 1901, Charlotte Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain, who found themselves in the Versailles of 1789 while visiting a park in that location in 1901. As Shallis describes it (p. 161):

"To the ladies of 1901 the experience was one they lived through, but if they stepped into another time, they either did so as a sort of ghost or else as real live people".

Meanwhile, the Wikipedia account of  Moberly's reported experience reads as follows:

"We walked briskly forward, talking as before, but from the moment we left the lane an extraordinary depression had come over me, which, in spite of every effort to shake off, steadily deepened. There seemed to be absolutely no reason for it; I was not at all tired, and was becoming more interested in my surroundings. I was anxious that my companion should not discover the sudden gloom upon my spirits, which became quite overpowering on reaching the point where the path ended, being crossed by another, right and left…Everything suddenly looked unnatural, therefore unpleasant; even the trees behind the building seemed to have become flat and lifeless, like a wood worked in tapestry. There were no effects of light and shade, and no wind stirred the trees. It was all intensely still."


What does this mean? Is this the domain of the supernatural, or is real physics involved? The Wiki article goes on to add:

" In the Versailles case, the two ladies were apparently seen, and spoken to, by people they saw"

In other words, there were real physical interactions, which implies a genuine physics basis. At the same time, Moberly's description reads as if the pair were in some sort of simulacrum world and not an actual past Earth ("the trees behind the building seemed to have become flat and lifeless", "no effects of light and shade").

This suggests perhaps a parallel universes "interphasing" effect. Something I had described in an earlier blog:

http://www.brane-space.blogspot.com/2012/08/is-it-possible-to-detect-parallel.html

Therein, I referenced the (David) Deutsch experiment (See: 'The Fabric of Reality') to detect  how the interphasing of a parallel universe can be carried out, and the penetration of our universe by a parallel one validated. In his book(pp. 38-47), Deutsch adopts the setup (Fig. 2-4) of a monochromatic light beam that passes through successive screens with single holes. The image presented on the screen is a central bright spot with darker penumbra around it. With a two slit pattern for the screens (p. 41) the experiment becomes more interesting in that successive barriers to generate the patterns engenders what Deutsch calls "shadow photons".


He acknowledges (p. 45) that "tangible" (i.e. measurable) photons are grounded in our tangible, current universe, but also that shadow photons can be thought of as collectively coming from a parallel universe. He then clarifies this in mind-blowing fashion (p. 45):


For it turns out that the shadow particles are partititoned among themselves in exactly the same way as the universe of tangible particles is partitioned from them...

Is it feasible then, that the two 1901 Brit women time-slipped into 1789 by virtue of  stepping into an interphased domain where two parallel universes merged: one from a 1789 Earth and the other from a 1901 version? Is it possible that the reason their time-slipped Versailles of 1789 appeared "gray and lifeless" is because they were seeing it via shadow photons - the only ones available?

What would the ladies have found had they conducted an interference experiment along the lines suggested by Deutsch? Would the shadows have been more intense to the point of overriding the rest of the pattern?

We consider this in the next part!