Arrow of Time and Its Long-Time Mystery Unlocked in New Research

Precisely how a phenomenon identified as the "arrow of time" occurs from the microscopic interactions among cells and particles remains a mystery.

Researchers at the CUNY Graduate Center Initiative for the Theoretical Sciences are helping unravel such a mystery through a recently published study, EurekAlert! reported.

The flow of time, from the past to the future, is a central feature of how humans experience the world.

The findings could have essential implications in various disciplines, which include physics, biology, and neuroscience.

Strength of Arrow of Time Measured

Fundamentally, the arrow of time occurs from the second law of thermodynamics, the principle that physical systems' microscopic arrangements are inclined to increase in randomness, shifting from order to disorder.

The more disordered the system turns, the more difficult it is to find its way back to an ordered condition, not to mention the stronger the arrow of time.

In short, the tendency of the universe toward disorder is the fundamental reason why humans experience flowing in a single direction.

According to the paper's first author, Christopher Lynn, also a postdoctoral fellow in the ITS program, the two questions the researchers had were, if they looked at a specific system, would they be able to measure the strength of its arrow of time, and sort out how it occurs from the micro scale, where cells and neurons are interacting, to the entire system.

Microscopic Details

Findings of the study published in Physical Review Letters offer the initial step toward understanding how the arrow of time experienced in everyday life arises from such microscopic details.

To start answering the questions, the study authors explored the manner the arrow of time could be decomposed by watching a system's specific parts, as well as the interactions between them.

For instance, the parts could be the neurons functioning within a retina. Looking at a single moment, they demonstrated that the arrow of time could be broken down into different pieces-those generated by parts working individually, in twos, threes, or more complex configurations.

Armed with this manner of decomposing the arrow of time, the study investigators investigated current experiments on the reaction of neurons in a salamander retina to various movies.

A single object moved randomly across the screen while another depicted the entire complexity of scenes present in nature.

'Chris' Decomposition

Across both movies, the study authors discovered that the arrow of time arose from the simple interactions between pairs of neurons, "not large, complicated groups," a similar Tabbed News report said.

Lynn explained that this latter finding brings out questions about how the internal perception of the arrow of time turns aligned with the outer world.

Such results may be of specific interest to neuroscience researchers, explained Lynn. For instance, they could lead to answers about whether the arrow of time functions in a different manner in brains that are neuroatypical.

Professor of Physics and Biology David Schwab, from the Graduate Center and the study's principal investigator, said "Chris" decomposition of local irreversibility, also identified as the arrow of time, is an elegant, general framework that may offer a novel perspective for the exploration of a lot of high-dimensional, non-equilibrium systems.

Related information about the mystery of the arrow of time is shown on Questn's YouTube video below:

Check out more news and information on Neuroscience in Science Times.