Fundamental time asymmetry from nontrivial space topology

Abstract

It is argued that a fundamental time asymmetry could arise from the global structure of the space manifold. The proposed mechanism relies on the CPT anomaly of certain chiral gauge theories defined over a multiply connected space manifold. The resulting time asymmetry (microscopic arrow of time) is illustrated by a simple thought experiment. The effect could, in principle, play a role in determining the initial conditions of the big bang.

9 pages, REVTeX, v5: version published

References in corpus (2)

• Causality and CPT violation from an Abelian Chern-Simons-like term
• Torsion, topology and CPT anomaly in two-dimensional chiral U(1) gauge theory

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Emergent CPT violation from the splitting of Fermi points
• Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory for curved spacetime backgrounds
• On the Lorentz symmetry of the noncommutative chiral bosons
• Equilibrium boundary conditions, dynamic vacuum energy, and the Big Bang
• Quantized meson fields in and out of equilibrium. I : Kinetics of meson condensate and quasi-particle excitations
• Anomalous Lorentz and CPT violation
• Statistical Mechanical Theory of a Closed Oscillating Universe