Computational Consequences of Thermodynamic Causal Stability: A Universal Limit on Retrocausal Quantum Information Processing
Najera Olivas, Sebastian
Recent proposals regarding Closed Timelike Curves (CTCs) suggest they could efficiently solve NP-complete problems. However, we have previously demonstrated that physical CTCs must be dissipative to satisfy the Novikov Self-Consistency Principle. In this work, we derive the computational consequences of this thermodynamic stability. We introduce Geometric Causal Complexity (GCC), a measure based on the accessible volume of the Hilbert space under the Fubini-Study metric. We prove a Universal Causal Complexity Bound: the computational advantage ΔC of a retrocausal channel is strictly limited by the ratio of non-linearity to dissipation, ΔC ≤ (K/γ) C_max. This implies that the "Arrow of Time" acts as a computational resource constraint: the same mechanism that prevents logical paradoxes also prevents the violation of the Church-Turing thesis. We analyze the implications for Rydberg atoms, superconducting circuits, and photonic networks, classifying them by their potential for non-Markovian quantum advantage.
•Nov 21, 2025•0 citations