12
Lensflare
35d

Here is my idea for a time machine which can only send one bit of information back in time.

@Wisecrack has asked me about it and I didn’t want to write it in comments because of the character limit.

So here we go.

The DCQE (delayed-choice quantum eraser) is an experiment that has been successfully performed by many people in small scale.
You can read about it on wikipedia but I'll try to explain it here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

First I need to quickly explain the double slit experiment because DCQE is based on that.
The double slit experiment shows that a particle, like a photon, seems to go through both slits at the same time and interfere with itself as a wave to finally contribute to an interference pattern when hit on a screen. Many photons will result in a visible interference pattern.
However, if we install a detector somewhere between the particle emitter an the screen, so that we know which path the particle must have taken (which slit it has passed through), then there will be no interference pattern on the screen because the particle will not behave as a wave.
For the time machine, we will interpret the interference pattern as bit 1 and no interference pattern as bit 0.

Now the DCQE:
This device lets us choose if we know the path of the particle or if we want wo erase this knowledge. And we can make this decision after the particle hit the screen (that is the "delayed" part), with the help of quantum entanglement.
How does it work?
Each particle send out by the emitter will pass through a crystal which will split it into an entangled pair of particles. This pair shares the same quantum state in space and time. If we know the path of one of the particle "halves", we also know the path of the other one. Remember the knowledge about the path determines if we will see the interference pattern. Now one of the particle "halves" goes directly into the screen by a short path. The other one takes a longer path.
The longer path has a switch that we can operate (this is the "choice" part). The switch changes the path that the particle takes so that it either goes through a detector or it doesn't, determining if it will contribute to the intererence pattern on the screen or not. And this choice will be done for the short path particle-half because their are entangeld.
The path of the first half particle is short, so it will hit the screen earlier.
After that happened, we still have time to make the choice for the second half, since its path is longer. But making the choice also affects the first half, which has already hit the screen. So we can retroactively change what we will see (or have seen) on the screen.
Remember this has already been tested and verified. It works.

The time machine:
We need enough photons to distinguish the patterns on the screen for one single bit of information.
And the insanely difficult part is to make the path for the second half long enough to have something practical.
Also, those photons need to stay coherent during their journey on that path and are not allowed to interact with each other.
We could use two mirrors, to let the photons bounce between them to extend the path (or the travel duration), but those need to be insanely pricise for reasonable amounts of time.
Just as an example, for 1 second of time travel, we would need a path length about the distance of the moon to the earth. And 1 second isn't very practical. To win the lottery we would need at least many hours.
Also, we would need to build the whole thing multiple times, one for each bit of information.

How to operate the time machine:
Turn on the particle emitter and look at the screen. If you see an interference pattern, write down a 1, otherwise a 0.
This is the information that your future you has sent you.
Repeat this process with the other time machines for more bits of information.
Then wait the time which corresponds to the path length (maybe send in your lottery numbers) and then (this part is very important) make sure to flip the switch corresponsing to the bit that you wrote down, so that your past you receives that info in the past.

I hope that helps :)

Comments
  • 2
    One second of future sight destroys the premise of the stock market.
  • 3
    I asked a bunch of physicists about the DCQE and they all pretty much agreed that this shouldn't work because a lot of the quantum mechanics the device is based on was derived from the arrow of causation.
  • 2
    I'm no quantum physicist though so for all I know it could be sound.
  • 1
    This may be useful
  • 1
    I'll agree to get wealthy enough to become your sponsor, if you agree to be the mad-scientist partner of the adventure.

    It shouldn't work but it does.

    So what we'll need:

    Enough money to hire people with clout and networks.

    Enough clout and networking to snag people really good at practical physics engineering at the edge (or beyond the egde) of theoretical work.

    We'll need to build or acquire a company that refines and builds really high purity mirrors, and/or engineer non-conventional optics.

    Experts in miniturization (we don't want our time machine being the size of the pentagon).

    Minutes of foresight would be enough to change the world, not hours.

    I choose to believe the premise, because even though it is absurd, it is crazy fun to believe it is true.
  • 1
    """

    "Which-path" information:

    By measuring the entangled partner in a specific way, the experiment can effectively "erase" the information about which slit the original photon went through, allowing it to exhibit interference behavior.

    No actual time travel:

    While it may seem like the measurement is influencing the past, it's crucial to understand that the interference pattern is only revealed when analyzing the data; the individual photon's behavior is determined at the moment it passes through the slits, and the later measurement simply determines how the data is interpreted

    """

    The DCQE can only be true under two possible conditions:

    Either spooky-action-at-a-distance isn't true, or retrocasuality is true.

    Because we have strong evidence to support the fact that entanglement is real, and suggesting it isn't negates a lot of other things that have hard evidence, it is likely that retrocasuality is true under certain conditions.
  • 1
    The third option is that DCQE is a flawed experiment, and no one has figured out how yet.

    Lot of scientists have examined it though and said its legit but doesn't make any sense according to our understanding of the way things work.
  • 0
    Papers suggesting faster-than-light communication aren't possible seem to imply that sending information backwards in time is impossible, but may be mistaken.

    All they really say is we can't communicate outside our OWN lightcone.

    Everything thats happened on earth, or within the light cone of earth would be communicable.

    All it really states is we can't obtain information beyond whats already casually linked to our light cone.

    In other words you likely couldn't send information back in time more than a year.

    If you'd need a photon-travel distance of about the distance of the earth to the moon (238,900 miles) for one second of look back, and the hypothetical maximum is a light year (5.879 trillion miles), then the maximum look back (how far ahead you could receive data from the future) would be 284.82 days.

    I'd think a beam splitter that doubles as an optical ring resonator to maximize photon travel would be the key.
  • 0
    @Wisecrack

    > While it may seem like the measurement is influencing the past, it's crucial to understand that the interference pattern is only revealed when analyzing the data; the individual photon's behavior is determined at the moment it passes through the slits, and the later measurement simply determines how the data is interpreted

    This is the crucial point. Every explanation that denies time travel is based on encoding information in single photons.

    But what I am suggesting is to use all of the photons to encode a single bit.

    I tried to find any discussions on this approach and I couldn‘t. Frankly I‘m surprised that this isn‘t discussed, apparently, since it‘s an obvious thought for me.

    I guess there is the possibility that many others found out about this and try to keep it secret, but haven’t found a practical way yet to build this time machine.
    I also think that we don’t have the tech yet, unfortunately.
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