Cilindro de Tipler
An extremely dense and fast cylinder can drag the geometry around it to admit closed time curves in an idealized solution of relativity.
The geometric idea
General relativity allows a rotating mass to drag nearby reference frames. This phenomenon, called frame drag, is real and has been studied around rotating bodies. The Tipler cylinder takes that idea to a limit: a very long, very dense, extremely rotating cylindrical distribution modifies the light cones until certain paths around the axis become closed time type curves.
The traveler would not have to locally exceed the speed of light. It would always follow a future trajectory from its perspective, but the global geometry would return it to a previous event with respect to the outside.
De van Stockum a Tipler
Willem van Stockum found a solution for rotating dust in 1936. Frank Tipler then analyzed how a rotating cylinder could violate global causality. The model is valuable because it clearly shows that the rotation of matter can affect not only space, but the causal order of events.
Why is it not an engineering plan?
- The density and angular velocity required would be extraordinary.
- The material would have to resist stresses that exceed any known structure.
- The finite versions do not automatically inherit the causal properties of the infinite model.
- Gravitational feedback, radiation, and quantum effects can destroy the acausal region.
The phrase "just spin a cylinder" hides precisely what physics is meant to demonstrate: that a finite configuration can be formed from reasonable matter and remain stable without problematic horizons or singularities.
What does it teach about time?
Tipler's cylinder separates three levels that are often confused: a mathematical solution, a physically constructible configuration, and a traversable technology. It surpasses the first level under very idealized hypotheses; there is no evidence that it can overcome the other two.
Its conceptual kinship with the Godel's universe and the Kerr black holes is in the rotation: in all three cases, the causal geometry is tilted by the movement of large mass distributions.
Fuente original
Frank J. Tipler, Rotating Cylinders and the Possibility of Global Causality Violation
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