ENCYCLOPEDIA 4U .com



Encyclopedia Home Page

Google
  Web Encyclopedia4u.com

 

T-symmetry

T-symmetry is the symmetry of physical laws under a time reversal transformation (replacing 't' by '-t' in all the equations). All laws of classical physics exhibit this nice T-symmetry. To say simply, all classical phenomena are reversible in time (Here 'classical', includes relativistic descriptions as well and only excludes quantum phenomena). By common sense, you might think that T-symmetry is obviously violated: we cannot remember the future, eggs are much easier to break than to reconstruct; in general, entropy increases. This is called the second law of thermodynamics, but in fact is not related in any obvious way to T-symmetry. The second law can be entirely attributed to the "initial conditions" of the universe, rather than the laws governing evolution.

Many physicists believe T-symmetry is violated. This is because experiments have shown that CPT-symmetry holds, but that CP-symmetry is broken. It can be shown that if CP-symmetry is broken, there must be a balancing T-symmetry violation in order to preserve CPT-symmetry.

However, there is no consensus as to the exact nature of the T-symmetry violation. Gravity is a prime contender: the fact that gravity is only attractive, not repulsive, may point to a violation of T-symmetry. Black holes appear to violate T-symmetry: there are significant differences between black hole formation and evaporation (via Hawking radiation). Particle physicists are conducting experiments looking for T-symmetry violation in high-energy nuclear reactions.





Content on this web site is provided for informational purposes only. We accept no responsibility for any loss, injury or inconvenience sustained by any person resulting from information published on this site. We encourage you to verify any critical information with the relevant authorities.



Copyright © 2005 Par Web Solutions All Rights reserved.
| Privacy

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "T-symmetry".