← all papers · overview

Time Symmetry, Retrocausality and the Emergent: Arrow of Time the Quantum Time-Symmetric Interpretation (QTSI)

Abstract

Microscopic quantum laws are time-symmetric: nothing in the Schr\"odinger equation or its relativistic extensions distinguishes future from past. Yet measurements produce irreversible records, an apparently one-way causal flow, and the familiar notion that causes precede effects. Within the Quantum Time-Symmetric Interpretation (QTSI), this asymmetry is not fundamental but emergent. Isolated quantum systems are described by a two-component temporal state containing forward- and backward-propagating amplitudes. Their mixing, governed by a parameter Δ(φ), defines a retrocausal coherence time τ_RC(φ) beyond which advanced components are suppressed. As the system couples to amplifying environments characterized by a macroscopic parameter φ, Δ(φ) decreases and the backward component is dynamically eliminated, giving rise to classical causality and effective collapse. QTSI aligns naturally with time-symmetric approaches from Wheeler--Feynman, Aharonov, and Price, agrees with all weak-measurement and quantum eraser results in their operational regimes, and predicts specific signatures in temporal echoes and chaotic cavities. Detailed formal and experimental developments appear in the Supplementary Addenda.

Related papers

Ranked by semantic similarity — how closely each paper's abstract matches this one (100% = near-identical topic).