Jan 6, 2023
Closed timelike curve
Posted by Dan Breeden in categories: cosmology, information science, mathematics, particle physics
In mathematical physics, a closed timelike curve (CTC) is a world line in a Lorentzian manifold, of a material particle in spacetime, that is “closed”, returning to its starting point. This possibility was first discovered by Willem Jacob van Stockum in 1937[1] and later confirmed by Kurt Gödel in 1949,[2] who discovered a solution to the equations of general relativity (GR) allowing CTCs known as the Gödel metric; and since then other GR solutions containing CTCs have been found, such as the Tipler cylinder and traversable wormholes.