The preferred time direction

in the dynamics of the full universe

carlo rovelli
t
a
Time
t
b
t
a
t
b
Time t
b
< t
a
: subset of the set of balls in the box
Observable: A

=
P
b
x
b
P
b
1
Macrostates: labeled by A

Entropy (microcanonical): number of microstates states in a

given macro state A

S
s,A
n
= log
Z

ds
0
Y
n
(A
n
(s
0
) A
n
(s)).
Second law is veried:
S
s,A

(t)
dt)
0.
t
a
t
b
Time t
b
< t
a
Time
t
a
t
b
t
a
t
b
Time t
a
< t
b
: subset of the set of balls in the box
Observable:
Macrostates: labeled by
Entropy: number of microstates states in a macro state
Second law is veried:
A

=
P
b
x
b
P
b
1

S
s,A

(t)
dt)
0.
t = t
Time
t
a
t
b
: subset formed by the red balls in the box

: subset formed by the yellow balls in the box

S
s,A

(t)
dt
0.
S
s,A

(t)
dt
0.
For each history of the system there is an observable
dening a growing entropy in each direction of time.
Message #1:
Entropy increase (passing of time)
can depend on the macroscopical observable
dening the coarse graining
rather than the micro-state of the world.
Strong conjecture:
For almost every microscopic history
of a sufciently rich ergodic system,
there is always a macroscopic observable
that denes an increasing entropy,
in either time direction.
Does this mean that
entropy increase is arbitrary:
depends only on denition
and is therefore unphysical?


No, of course

Because the coarse graining
and the choice of the relevant macroscopical observables
is not free: it is dictated by the physics.


N heavy particles
2
N
small watcher particles
One watcher particle for each subset of heavy particles
The watcher particle is attracted by the subset of heavy particles
N heavy particles
2
N
small watcher particles
One watcher particle for each subset of heavy particles
The watcher particle is attracted by the subset of heavy particles
Time
t
a
t
b
t
a
t
b
Time t
b
< t
a
t
a
t
b
Time t
a
< t
b
Observable:
The macrostates of the heavy particles
are objectively described by the
coarse graining dened by
for what concerns their interactions
with
Therefore interacts with a world
where the second law is true:
A

=
P
b
x
b
P
b
1

S
s,A

(t)
dt
0.
The quantity is precisely the macroscopic
observable that governs the interaction of
the heavy balls with
A

Therefore interacts with a world

where the second law is true:
S
s,A

(t)
dt
0.

While interacts with a world

where a different second law is true:

S
s,A

(t)
dt
0.
The same world is seen as having
increasing or decreasing entropy
by different subsystems having
different couplings with the rest.
Message #2:
Entropy increase (passing of time)
experienced by a subsystem depend
on the coupling of this subsystem
rather than the micro-state of the world.
Strong conjecture:
For almost every microscopic history
of a sufciently rich ergodic system,
there is always a subsystem
which experiences entropy increase.
Message #1: Entropy increase (passing of time)
depend on the macroscopic observables.
For almost every microscopic history of a
sufciently rich ergodic system, there is
always a macroscopic observable that denes
an increasing entropy, in either time direction.
Conjecture 1:
Message #2:
Entropy increase (passing of time) experienced
by a subsystem depend on its coupling.
For almost every microscopic history of a
sufciently rich ergodic system, there is always a
subsystem which experiences entropy increase.
Conjecture 2:
Why is the future different from the past?
There are numerous arrows of time in science:
Second law of thermodynamics
Retarded potential in electromagnetism
Biological (individuals go from birth to death)
Biological (species evolution in one time direction)
Psychological

Equilibrium: thermal time is constant

Gas in const gravitational eld:
Gas is hotter at the bottom
Identical clocks at dierent altitudes
run at dierent rates, slouching
clocks run slow.
The temperature has to be higher at
low altitudes; the faster state
transitions compensate exactly the
slowing down of proper time.
The upper and lower systems transit
the same number of states during
interaction interval t.
10
All of these can be traced
to the second law of thermodynamics.
See Lebowitz, Boltzmanns
entropy and times arrow, (1993)
How can the second law of thermodynamics be compatible
with the microscopic time (CPT) reversal invariance?
There is no contradiction: time reversal invariance
is broken anytime entropy is low in the past.
Why was entropy low in the past?
Because it was low in the cosmological past.
Therefore the problem of the difference between
past and future is a problem for cosmology.
This is puzzling
The initial (micro) state of the universe was very special (low entropy)
Why spacetime is not crumpled in the past?
See Penrose, Singularities
and Time-Asymmetry, 1979.
Ex: a generic spacetime is crumpled.
Ination does not help: it only
displaces the problem.
The initial (micro) state of the universe was very special (low entropy)?
I suggest that there is a more interesting possibility:
i) The initial micro-state of the universe is generic.
ii) We describe it is in terms of macroscopic variables with
respect to which entropy is low.
iii) We do so because we belong to a subsystem that couples to
such variables.
iv) The reason we couple with such variables is that this fact
(living in time) is precisely what characterises us.
THE SECOND LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS IS TRUE,
BUT IT IS PERSPECTIVAL
E
in
= E
out

in
>
out
S
in
< S
out
With respect to the
macroscopic variables
energy and frequency,
there is entropy
production in the
biosphere
It is not the (microstate) of the universe to be peculiar.
It is ourself (the system we belong to), to be peculiar observers,

we couple to macroscopic variables
giving low entropy at one end.
The low initial entropy is not due to the state.
It is due to the coarse graining observables.
The real world:
Cosmology: It is not the dynamics of everything. It is the dynamics of a few very
coarse grained degrees of freedom (see J Barrows talk). Comology is a feast of coarse
graining!
General relativity: The dynamics does not have a single preferred time variable. Even
less a direction.
Quantum mechanics: Entropy includes von Neumann entropy, which event more
than in the classical case, depends on the splitting in subsystems and the coupling
between these.
Quantum Gravity: Loop Quantum Gravity: Space and time emerge in the
semiclassical approximation. Cosmology is a violently coarse grained description of
reality.
H

= L
2
[SU(2)
L
/SU(2)
N
]

L
i
a
, L
j
b

= i
ab

ij
k
L
k
a
W
v
= (P
SL(2,C)
Y

v
)(1I)
The scale factor may be like
The variable.
A

t
a
t
b
Time t
a
< t
b
Related ideas and issues:
Simon Saunders David Wallace: Branching of the universal wave function is time
oriented. Why? Could it be that it is with respect to a subsystem with suitable
couplings that the branching is time oriented?

or ?

Jenann Ismael: Which aspects of the world depend on our own perspective on
them?
Max Tegmark: How unitary cosmology generalizes thermodynamics and solves the
inationary entropy problem (2012).
David Albert: The low entropy initial condition is what allows us to reconstruct the
past.
Jim Hartle: Predictability emerges in the quantum state from quasi classical realms.
The relevant observables are averages of densities of conserved quantities over
small volumes. In quantum gravity, does locality emerges after the establishment of
a semiclassical approximation? Is coarse graining determined or determining
locality?

- Entropy increase (passage of time) depend on the coarse graining, hence the
subsystem, not the micro-state of the world.
For almost every microscopic history of a sufciently
rich ergodic system, there is always a subsystem which
experiences entropy increase.
- Conjecture:
Summary
- Time asymmetry, and time ow, might be a feature of a subsystem to
which we belong, (needed for information gathering creatures like us to be
what we are), not features of the universe at large.
The second law of thermodynamics is true,
but it is perspectival.
CR: Why do we remember the past and not the future?
The time oriented coarse graining hypothesis
arXiv: 1407.3384.