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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Why am I having trouble with Tolman's paradox?
« on: 22/06/2014 20:03:43 »
Reference material:
http://www.ejtp.com/articles/ejtpv6i21p1.pdf (see diagram on page 5)
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I still cannot see how a tachyon that merely moves faster than light necessarily reverses the order of events. I have been drawing Minkowski diagrams for several hours and I am still not seeing it. All the diagrams that propose to demonstrate reverse causality merely draw in a tachyon moving backwards in time. Thus as far as I am concerned they are inserting the conclusion into the premise. The diagram from page five above is incorrect as far as I am concerned. All signals traveling from B to A, (be they tachyon, photon, or sound wave) must traverse from right-to-left going upwards. Not downwards as tachyon2 was drawn in the PDF.
Here is the original diagram followed by my correction:
Upon asking a non-expert, I was informed that I must have an accelerated frame whose future contains the past of a stationary observer. So I did that exact thing. I see no reverse causality again. Only that the tachyon will arrive prior to the light signal from A0. The diagram below shows a stationary observer `"A"` and an observer `"B"` in an accelerated reference frame:
I still do not see how reversal of events can happen here. Only when we presume that tachyons "move backwards in time" does this manifest. But I cannot see how that is asserted merely by a tachyon traversing a more shallow slope on the diagram than the light cone.
More precisely: Please explain why the tachyon from observer B to observer A must necessarily move backwards in time in ('downwards') the reference frame of A.
http://www.ejtp.com/articles/ejtpv6i21p1.pdf (see diagram on page 5)
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I still cannot see how a tachyon that merely moves faster than light necessarily reverses the order of events. I have been drawing Minkowski diagrams for several hours and I am still not seeing it. All the diagrams that propose to demonstrate reverse causality merely draw in a tachyon moving backwards in time. Thus as far as I am concerned they are inserting the conclusion into the premise. The diagram from page five above is incorrect as far as I am concerned. All signals traveling from B to A, (be they tachyon, photon, or sound wave) must traverse from right-to-left going upwards. Not downwards as tachyon2 was drawn in the PDF.
Here is the original diagram followed by my correction:
Upon asking a non-expert, I was informed that I must have an accelerated frame whose future contains the past of a stationary observer. So I did that exact thing. I see no reverse causality again. Only that the tachyon will arrive prior to the light signal from A0. The diagram below shows a stationary observer `"A"` and an observer `"B"` in an accelerated reference frame:
I still do not see how reversal of events can happen here. Only when we presume that tachyons "move backwards in time" does this manifest. But I cannot see how that is asserted merely by a tachyon traversing a more shallow slope on the diagram than the light cone.
More precisely: Please explain why the tachyon from observer B to observer A must necessarily move backwards in time in ('downwards') the reference frame of A.