On The Origin Of The Classical And Quantum Electrodynamic Arrows Of Time
D. Leiter
In order to describe the quantum electrodynamic measurement process in a relativistic observer-participant manner, an operator symmetry of "microscopic observer-participation" called Measurement Color (MC) is incorporated into the field theoretic structure of Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) in the Heisenberg Picture. It is found that the resultant Measurement Color Quantum Electrodynamics (MC-QED) contains a microscopic quantum electrodynamic arrow of time that emerges dynamically, independent of any thermodynamic or cosmological assumptions. This occurs because the photon has a negative time parity in MC-QED. This causes a spontaneous breaking of the T and CPT symmetry to be generated by the physical requirement that a stable vacuum state exists in the MC-QED formalimm. This dynamically selects operator solutions containing a causal, retarded, quantum electrodynamic arrow of time due in the Heisenberg operator equations of motion. In support of the validity of this idea we show that a classic nonlinear optics experiment in the scientific literature, which involves a Michelson interferometer using combinations of ordinary mirrors and phase conjugate mirrors, contains experimental results which support the idea that the photon has a negative parity under Wigner time reversal and thus carries the arrow of time in the universe.
arXiv:0902.4667•Feb 26, 2009•0 citations