What's the deal with the arrow of time in quantum mechanics

CRISTIAN LÓPEZ

Londres

Congreso; XVIII UK-European Conference on Foundation of Physics; 2016

London School of Economics and Politics

In this presentation, the problem of the arrow of time in quantum mechanics will be taken into account. Firstly, I will show there truly is a serious problem when time-reversal operator is carefully thought out in quantum mechanics. At least, two kinds of time-reversal operators can be suitably established in the theory, according to which quantum mechanics turns out to be time invariant and time non-invariant. Then, I will argue that the commonly accepted way to define a time reversal operator in quantum mechanics (time reversal plus complex conjugation) begs the question about the problem of the arrow of time ?this kind of operator is built upon the assumption that temporal symmetry is a well-established symmetry of quantum mechanics so that the problem of the arrow of time would be meaningless.