‘The maths checks out – and the results are the stuff of science fiction,’ (Picture: Unsplash)
Time travel has long been everyone’s favourite science question and a scientist proved that paradox-free time travel was indeed possible in theory.
In 2020, a physics student Germain Tobar, from the University of Queensland in Australia, worked out how to make time travel viable.
‘Einstein’s theory of general relativity predicts the existence of time loops or time travel – where an event can be both in the past and future of itself – theoretically turning the study of dynamics on its head,’ said Tobar.
Tobar, an undergraduate student at the time, said a unified theory that could reconcile both traditional dynamics and Einstein’s Theory of Relativity was the holy grail of physics.
‘But the current science says both theories cannot both be true,’ he said.
A DeLorean Time Machine replica from the Back to the Future movies (Picture: Propstore/Mega)
Under the supervision of physicist Dr Fabio Costa, Tobar found a way to ‘square the numbers’ with the calculations having ‘fascinating consequences for science’.
‘The maths checks out – and the results are the stuff of science fiction,’ said Dr Costa.
‘Say you travelled in time, in an attempt to stop Covid-19’s patient zero from being exposed to the virus. However if you stopped that individual from becoming infected, that would eliminate the motivation for you to go back and stop the pandemic in the first place,’
‘This is a paradox – an inconsistency that often leads people to think that time travel cannot occur in our universe,’
While some physicists say it is possible, it’s logically hard to accept as it would affect our freedom to make any arbitrary action.
‘It would mean you can time travel, but you cannot do anything that would cause a paradox to occur,’ said Dr Costa.
Time travel has so far been the stuff of science fiction movies (Picture: CBS via Getty Images)
The study published in Classical and Quantum Gravity says it is possible for events to adjust themselves to be logically consistent with any action that the time traveller makes.
‘In the coronavirus patient zero example, you might try and stop patient zero from becoming infected, but in doing so you would catch the virus and become patient zero, or someone else would,’ said Tobar.
‘No matter what you did, the salient events would just recalibrate around you. This would mean that – no matter your actions – the pandemic would occur, giving your younger self the motivation to go back and stop it,’
‘Try as you might to create a paradox, the events will always adjust themselves, to avoid any inconsistency,’
The range of mathematical processes discovered by the researchers showed that time travel with free will is logically possible in our universe without any paradox.
Time travel with free will is logically possible in theory.
