Time reversal symmetry in cosmology and the creation of a universe-antiuniverse pair Articles uri icon

publication date

  • June 2019

start page

  • 1

end page

  • 11

issue

  • 6

volume

  • 5

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 2218-1997

abstract

  • The classical evolution of the universe can be seen as a parametrised worldline of the minisuperspace, with the time variable t being the parameter that parametrises the worldline. The time reversal symmetry of the field equations implies that for any positive oriented solution there can be a symmetric negative oriented one that, in terms of the same time variable, respectively represent an expanding and a contracting universe. However, the choice of the time variable induced by the correct value of the Schrödinger equation in the two universes makes it so that their physical time variables can be reversely related. In that case, the two universes would both be expanding universes from the perspective of their internal inhabitants, who identify matter with the particles that move in their spacetimes and antimatter with the particles that move in the time reversely symmetric universe. If the assumptions considered are consistent with a realistic scenario of our universe, the creation of a universe–antiuniverse pair might explain two main and related problems in cosmology: the time asymmetry and the primordial matter–antimatter asymmetry of our universe.

subjects

  • Mathematics
  • Physics

keywords

  • quantum cosmology; origin of the universe; time reversal symmetry