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A remark on “time machines” in honor of Howard Stein. (English) Zbl 1421.83069

From the introduction: A framework for investigating Stein’s question – often interpreted to be a question concerning the possibility of “time machines” – has been developed by John Earman and others [C. J. S. Clarke, “‘The analysis of space-time singularities,” Cambridge Lecture Notes in Physics. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. xiv, 175 p. (1993; Zbl 0835.53093)]. I’ll be working within that framework today. I hope to give a sense on where things stand in 2017 and articulate possible avenues for future work as well. My thesis is three-fold. First, there is a sense in which there are “time machines” in general relativity. Second, there are “hole machines” as well. Finally, I will conclude that (so far) it seems the “hole machine” advocate is in a better position than the ‘time machine” advocate. I will work to make clear the content of these three claims. Regarding the third claim, let me suggest at this stage that we refer to the time machine advocate as “Tim” and the hole machine advocate as “Hal” to make things easier. These are just idealized philosophers trying to make the case, as best they can, for the possibility of their respective machines. We will have more to say about Tim and Hal – and the tension between them – toward the end of the talk.

MSC:

83C75 Space-time singularities, cosmic censorship, etc.
83C05 Einstein’s equations (general structure, canonical formalism, Cauchy problems)
83C20 Classes of solutions; algebraically special solutions, metrics with symmetries for problems in general relativity and gravitational theory
83C57 Black holes
00A79 Physics

Biographic References:

Stein, Howard

Citations:

Zbl 0835.53093
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References:

[1] Clarke, C., The analysis of space-time singularities (1993), Cambridge University Press: Cambridge University Press Cambridge · Zbl 0835.53093
[2] Earman, J., Bangs, crunches, whimpers, and shrieks (1995), Oxford University Press: Oxford University Press Oxford
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[23] Smeenk, C.; Wüthrich, C., Time travel and time machines, (Callender, C., The oxford Handbook of time (2010), Oxford University Press: Oxford University Press Oxford), 577-630
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