Novikov self-consistency principle: Difference between revisions

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Among the co-authors of this 1990 paper were [[Kip Thorne]], [[Mike Morris (physicist)|Mike Morris]], and Ulvi Yurtsever, who in 1988 had stirred up renewed interest in the subject of time travel in general relativity with their paper "Wormholes, Time Machines, and the Weak Energy Condition",<ref>{{cite journal | first=Kip | last=Thorne |author2=Michael Morris |author3=Ulvi Yurtsever | journal=[[Physical Review Letters]] | volume = 61 | issue=13| pages=1446–1449 | doi= 10.1103/PhysRevLett.61.1446 | title= Wormholes, Time Machines, and the Weak Energy Condition | year=1988 | url=http://authors.library.caltech.edu/9262/1/MORprl88.pdf | bibcode=1988PhRvL..61.1446M | pmid=10038800}}</ref> which showed that a new general relativity solution known as a [[Wormhole#Traversable wormholes|traversable wormhole]] could lead to closed timelike curves, and unlike previous CTC-containing solutions, it did not require unrealistic conditions for the universe as a whole. After discussions with anotherthe lead co-author of the 1990 paper, John Friedman, they convinced themselves that time travel needn't lead to unresolvable paradoxes, regardless of the object sent through the wormhole.<ref name = "time warps">{{cite book| first= Kip S. | last= Thorne|title=Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy|url=https://archive.org/details/blackholestimewa0000thor| url-access= registration | quote= Polchinski's paradox. |year=1994|publisher=W.W. Norton|isbn=978-0-393-31276-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/blackholestimewa0000thor/page/510 510]–}}</ref>{{rp|509}}

[[File:Grandfather paradox billiard ball.svg|thumb|right|150px|"Polchinski's paradox"]] [[File:Causal loop billiard ball.svg|thumb|right|150px|Echeverria and Klinkhammer's resolution]] By way of response, physicist [[Joseph Polchinski]] wrote them a letter arguing that one could avoid the issue of free will by employing a potentially paradoxical thought experiment involving a [[billiard ball]] sent back in time through a wormhole. In Polchinski's scenario, the billiard ball is fired into the [[wormhole]] at an angle such that, if it continues along its path, it will exit in the past at just the right angle to collide with its earlier self, knocking it off track and preventing it from entering the wormhole in the first place. Thorne would refer to this scenario as "[[Polchinski's paradox]]" in 1994.<ref name = "timewarps">{{cite book | last = Thorne | first = Kip S. | author-link = Kip Thorne | title = [[Black Holes and Time Warps]] | publisher = W. W. Norton | year= 1994 | isbn = 0-393-31276-3}}</ref>{{rp|510–511}}