Cauchy problem in spacetimes with closed timelike curves

Journal Article · Sat Sep 15 04:00:00 EDT 1990 · Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.42.1915· OSTI ID:6061781

Friedman, J; Morris, M S ^[1]; Novikov, I D ^[2]; Echeverria, F; Klinkhammer, G; Thorne, K S ^[3]; Yurtsever, U ^[4]

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1. Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201 (USA)
2. Space Research Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R., Moscow (U.S.S.R.)
3. Theoretical Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA (USA)
4. International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste (Italy) Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL (USA)

The laws of physics might permit the existence, in the real Universe, of closed timelike curves (CTC's). Macroscopic CTC's might be a semiclassical consequence of Planck-scale, quantum gravitational, Lorentzian foam, if such foam exists. If CTC's are permitted, then the semiclassical laws of physics (the laws with gravity classical and other fields quantized or classical) should be augmented by a principle of self-consistency, which states that a local solution to the equations of physics can occur in the real Universe only if it can be extended to be part of a global solution, one which is well defined throughout the (nonsingular regions of) classical spacetime. The consequences of this principle are explored for the Cauchy problem of the evolution of a classical, massless scalar field {Phi} (satisfying {D'Alembertian}{Phi}=0) in several model spacetimes with CTC's.

• OSTI ID: 6061781
• Journal Information: Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (USA), Journal Name: Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (USA) Vol. 42:6; ISSN PRVDA; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640106* -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Cosmology
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
CAUCHY PROBLEM
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FIELD THEORIES
MASSLESS PARTICLES
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
QUANTUM GRAVITY
SCALAR FIELDS
SEMICLASSICAL APPROXIMATION
SPACE-TIME
UNIVERSE