Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T21:11:22.954Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the Existence of “Time Machines” in General Relativity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

John Byron Manchak
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Within the context of general relativity, we consider one definition of a “time machine” proposed by Earman, Smeenk, and Wüthrich. They conjecture that, under their definition, the class of time machine spacetimes is not empty. Here, we prove this conjecture.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 76 , Issue 5 , December 2009 , pp. 1020 - 1026
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

‡

I wish to thank John Earman, David Malament, Christopher Smeenk, and Christian Wüthrich for helpful discussions on this topic.

References

Earman, John (1995), Bangs, Crunches, Whimpers, and Shrieks: Singularities and Acausalities in Relativistic Spacetimes. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Earman, John, Smeenk, Christopher, and Wüthrich, Christian (2009), “Do the Laws of Physics Forbid the Operation of Time Machines?”, Do the Laws of Physics Forbid the Operation of Time Machines? 169:91–124.Google Scholar
Earman, John, and Wüthrich, Christian (2004), “Time Machines”, in E. N. Zalta (ed.), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/time-machine/.Google Scholar
Geroch, Robert (1977), “Prediction in General Relativity”, in Earman, John, Glymour, Clark, and Stachel, John (eds.), Foundations of Space-Time Theories. Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol. 8. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 81–93.Google Scholar
Geroch, Robert, and Horowitz, Gary (1979), “Global Structure of Spacetimes”, in Hawking, Stephen and Israel, Werner (eds.), General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 212–293.Google Scholar
Hawking, Stephen, and Ellis, George (1973), The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawking, Stephen, and Penrose, Roger (1970), “The Singularities of Gravitational Collapse and Cosmology”, The Singularities of Gravitational Collapse and Cosmology 314:529–548.Google Scholar
Krasnikov, S. V. (2002), “No Time Machines in Classical General Relativity”, No Time Machines in Classical General Relativity 19:4109–4129.Google Scholar
Manchak, John (2009), “Is Spacetime Hole-Free?”, Is Spacetime Hole-Free? 41:1639–1643.Google Scholar
Wald, Robert (1984), General Relativity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar