Billiard balls in wormhole spacetimes with closed timelike curves: Classical theory

Journal Article · Thu Aug 15 00:00:00 EDT 1991 · Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.44.1077· OSTI ID:5219973

Echeverria, F; Klinkhammer, G; Thorne, K S ^[1]

---

1. Theoretical Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California (USA)

The effects of self-interaction in classical physics, in the presence of closed timelike curves, are probed by means of a simple model problem: The motion and self-collisions of a nonrelativistic, classical billiard ball in a space endowed with a wormhole that takes the ball backward in time. The central question asked is whether the Cauchy problem is well posed for this model problem, in the following sense: We define the {ital multiplicity} of an initial trajectory for the ball to be the number of self-consistent solutions of the ball's equations of motion, which begin with that trajectory. For the Cauchy problem to be well posed, all initial trajectories must have multiplicity one.

• OSTI ID: 5219973
• Journal Information: Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States), Vol. 44:4; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
CLASSICAL MECHANICS
SPACE-TIME
CAUCHY PROBLEM
EQUATIONS OF MOTION
GRAVITATIONAL FIELDS
LIGHT CONE
MULTIPLICITY
PERTURBATION THEORY
QUANTUM MECHANICS
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
EQUATIONS
MECHANICS
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
645400* - High Energy Physics- Field Theory
657002 - Theoretical & Mathematical Physics- Classical & Quantum Mechanics