The time could have a crystal structure

We echo of a surprising news that can radically change our concepto del tiempo. On this occasion, we carry out the dissemination of an article by tendencias21:

A team of physicists has found that the minimum scale of measurable time It has several orders of magnitude greater than the Planck time, el mínimo establecido hasta la fecha. Esto, aplicado a las ecuaciones básicas de la mecánica cuántica, señalaría que la estructura del tiempo podría ser como la de un cristal, consistente en segmentos discretos que se repiten periódicamente.

The philosopher Heraclitus (siglo V a.C.) relacionaba el tiempo con el estado de constante fluir de todas las cosas; y del tiempo decía Aristotle “es un tipo de número”. La ciencia también se ha preguntado sobre la nature of time: ¿Es el tiempo un continuo (fluye sin cesar, como decía Heraclitus) o es discreto (se divide en unidades consecutivas, como sugería Aristotle)? Un nuevo estudio arroja algo de luz -y oscuridad- a esta cuestión.

To try and understand what raises this work should start explaining in physics there established a time limit. It's the time Planck or Chronon, and is considered the smallest time interval physically significant (10-43 seconds).

The new study has shown that minimum scale of time would be several orders of magnitude greater than the Planck time. Por otro lado, los autores del trabajo (de la Universidad de Waterloo y de la Universidad de Lethbridge, en Canadá, y de la Universidad de Alejandría, en Egipto) han constatado que la existencia de ese tiempo tan mínimo alteraría las ecuaciones básicas de la mecánica cuántica.

Since quantum mechanics describes all physical systems to a very small (subatomic) scale, this new temporary measure could change the description of lattice systems, they say. Their results have been published TI have European Physical Journal C.

Driven by recent theoretical studies, the researchers wanted to deepen in the time structurein particular, in the question long debated (as we have seen, even from classical philosophy) of if time is a continuum or if it is discrete. For their study, departed from the budget that time is discrete or batch, explains in Physorg Mir Faizal, one of the authors of the work.

They proved this point with the spontaneous of an atom of hydrogen emission rate. Spontaneous emission is a process by which an atom in an excited state, goes to a lower energy State, releasing a photon in the process.

They discovered so the minimum time was of magnitude greater than the Planck time, pero no superior a una determinada cifra. Futuros experimentos podrían determinar el valor exacto de este límite de tiempo mínimo. Los efectos propuestos también pueden ser observables en otras tasas de desintegración de partículas y de núcleos inestables.

Implications for the time

Scientists suggest to implement this new measure to the basic equations of quantum mechanics would modify the same definition of time.

They explain that the structure of the time could be thought from these results as a crystal structure, consistente en segmentos discretos que se repiten periódicamente.

At a more philosophical level, the argument that the time is discontinuous would suggest that our perception of time as something that flows continuously is only an illusion.

"The physical universe is really like a movie, in which a series of still images created the illusion of images in movement," says Faizal. A 'movie' that would be produced by a discrete underlying mathematical structure.

The proposal would designate what said Plato, that the true reality exists independent of the senses. "However, unlike other theories of Platonic idealism, this can be tested experimentally, and is not only a philosophical argument," concludes Faizal.

Bibliographic reference:

Mir Faizal, et to the. Time crystals from minimum time uncertainty. The European Physical Journal C (2016). DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-016-3884-4.