Time: Towards a Consistent Theory

by C.K. Raju

Is time, even locally, like the real line? Multiple structures of time, implicit in physics, create a consistency problem. A tilt in the arrow of time is suggested as the most conservative hypothesis which provides approximate consistency within physics and with topology of mundane time.
Mathematically, the assumed constancy of the velocity of light (needed to measure time) implies functional differential equations of motion, that have both retarded and advanced deviating arguments with the hypothesis of a tilt. The novel features of such equations lead to a nontrivial structure of time and quantum-mechanical behaviour. The entire argument is embedded in a pedagogical exposition which amplifies, corrects, and questions the conventionally accepted approach. The exposition includes historical details and explains, for instance, why the entropy law is inadequate for time asymmetry, and why notions such as time asymmetry (hence causality) may be conceptually inadequate.
The first three parts of the book are especially suited as supplementary reading material for undergraduate and graduate students and teachers of physics. The new ideas are addressed to researchers in physics and philosophy of science concerned with relativity and the interpretation of quantum mechanics.

272 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 1994

About the author

C. K. Raju holds a masters in mathematics from Mumbai, followed by a PhD from the Indian Statistical Institute. He taught mathematics for several years at Pune University before moving on to help build India's first parallel supercomputer, Param. After a fellowship at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, and the National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies, he resumed university teaching, and is currently a Distinguished Professor. He has proposed many radical new ideas related to time, quantum mechanics, quantum computing and the history and philosophy of mathematics, and calculus. He has written critically acclaimed books on physics (Time: Towards a Consistent Theory, Kluwer, 1994), history and philosophy of mathematics (Cultural Foundations of Mathematics, Pearson Longman, 2007), on time at the interface of science, religion and ethics (The Eleven Pictures of Time, Sage, 2003), and on the history of science (Is Science Western in Origin?, Multiversity and Citizens International, Penang, 2009). For a full list of his books, see http://ckraju.net. He straddles various fields, and was an editor of the Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research and curently advices other scholarly journals. He has also built computer software for industrial and educational use. Volume 5 of his collected papers contains his scholarly articles on mathematics and religion. In his "5-day course on calculus", he has demonstrated that mathematics can be made very easy by eliminating the post-Crusade theology in it. Watch out for more of his forthcoming books, especially "Euclid and Jesus".