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A landscape of time asymmetry

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Abstract

This is a conceptual overview on a polemical subject: the problem of time asymmetry. It is proved that time asymmetry can be considered as a global generalized symmetry breaking, produced by a choice of a physically admissible state space, in a global Gel'fand triplet. The well-known physics of irreversible process can be studied using this mathematical structure and all the arrows of time can be explained and coordinated. But the deeper problems of time definition and time arrow in quantum gravity remain outside of this landscape.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Astonomiá y Física del Espacio, 1428, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Mario Castagnino

  2. RGGR, Brussels Free University (ULB), Campus Plaine, CP 231, 1050, Brussels, Belgium

    Edgard Gunzig

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  1. Mario Castagnino
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  2. Edgard Gunzig
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Correspondence to Mario Castagnino.

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Castagnino, M., Gunzig, E. A landscape of time asymmetry. Int J Theor Phys 36, 2545–2581 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02768942

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