If you are aware of an interesting new academic paper (that has been published in a peer-reviewed journal or has appeared on the arXiv), a conference talk (at an official professional scientific meeting), an external blog post (by a professional scientist) or a news item (in the mainstream news media), which you think might make an interesting topic for an FQXi blog post, then please contact us at forums@fqxi.org with a link to the original source and a sentence about why you think that the work is worthy of discussion. Please note that we receive many such suggestions and while we endeavour to respond to them, we may not be able to reply to all suggestions.
Please also note that we do not accept unsolicited posts and we cannot review, or open new threads for, unsolicited articles or papers. Requests to review or post such materials will not be answered. If you have your own novel physics theory or model, which you would like to post for further discussion among then FQXi community, then please add them directly to the "Alternative Models of Reality" thread, or to the "Alternative Models of Cosmology" thread. Thank you.
Please also note that we do not accept unsolicited posts and we cannot review, or open new threads for, unsolicited articles or papers. Requests to review or post such materials will not be answered. If you have your own novel physics theory or model, which you would like to post for further discussion among then FQXi community, then please add them directly to the "Alternative Models of Reality" thread, or to the "Alternative Models of Cosmology" thread. Thank you.
Contests Home
Current Essay Contest
Previous Contests
Undecidability, Uncomputability, and Unpredictability Essay Contest
December 24, 2019 - April 24, 2020
Contest Partners: Fetzer Franklin Fund, and The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation
read/discuss
What Is “Fundamental”
October 28, 2017 to January 22, 2018
Sponsored by the Fetzer Franklin Fund and The Peter & Patricia Gruber Foundation
read/discuss • winners
Wandering Towards a Goal
How can mindless mathematical laws give rise to aims and intention?
December 2, 2016 to March 3, 2017
Contest Partner: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Fund.
read/discuss • winners
Trick or Truth: The Mysterious Connection Between Physics and Mathematics
Contest Partners: Nanotronics Imaging, The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, and The John Templeton Foundation
Media Partner: Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
How Should Humanity Steer the Future?
January 9, 2014 - August 31, 2014
Contest Partners: Jaan Tallinn, The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, The John Templeton Foundation, and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
It From Bit or Bit From It
March 25 - June 28, 2013
Contest Partners: The Gruber Foundation, J. Templeton Foundation, and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
Questioning the Foundations
Which of Our Basic Physical Assumptions Are Wrong?
May 24 - August 31, 2012
Contest Partners: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, SubMeta, and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
Is Reality Digital or Analog?
November 2010 - February 2011
Contest Partners: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
What's Ultimately Possible in Physics?
May - October 2009
Contest Partners: Astrid and Bruce McWilliams
read/discuss • winners
The Nature of Time
August - December 2008
read/discuss • winners
Current Essay Contest
Previous Contests
Undecidability, Uncomputability, and Unpredictability Essay Contest
December 24, 2019 - April 24, 2020
Contest Partners: Fetzer Franklin Fund, and The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation
read/discuss
What Is “Fundamental”
October 28, 2017 to January 22, 2018
Sponsored by the Fetzer Franklin Fund and The Peter & Patricia Gruber Foundation
read/discuss • winners
Wandering Towards a Goal
How can mindless mathematical laws give rise to aims and intention?
December 2, 2016 to March 3, 2017
Contest Partner: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Fund.
read/discuss • winners
Trick or Truth: The Mysterious Connection Between Physics and Mathematics
Contest Partners: Nanotronics Imaging, The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, and The John Templeton Foundation
Media Partner: Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
How Should Humanity Steer the Future?
January 9, 2014 - August 31, 2014
Contest Partners: Jaan Tallinn, The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, The John Templeton Foundation, and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
It From Bit or Bit From It
March 25 - June 28, 2013
Contest Partners: The Gruber Foundation, J. Templeton Foundation, and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
Questioning the Foundations
Which of Our Basic Physical Assumptions Are Wrong?
May 24 - August 31, 2012
Contest Partners: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, SubMeta, and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
Is Reality Digital or Analog?
November 2010 - February 2011
Contest Partners: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
What's Ultimately Possible in Physics?
May - October 2009
Contest Partners: Astrid and Bruce McWilliams
read/discuss • winners
The Nature of Time
August - December 2008
read/discuss • winners
Forum Home
Introduction
Terms of Use
RSS feed | RSS help
Introduction
Terms of Use
Posts by the author are highlighted in orange; posts by FQXi Members are highlighted in blue.
By using the FQXi Forum, you acknowledge reading and agree to abide by the Terms of Use RSS feed | RSS help
RECENT POSTS IN THIS TOPIC
Harish Kumar: on 10/10/19 at 5:54am UTC, wrote It is a pleasant reading your essay. it appears you have examined the...
Narendra Nath: on 12/6/08 at 16:02pm UTC, wrote Dear Dr. Parikh. It is a pleasant reading your essay. it appears you have...
Carl Brannen: on 12/2/08 at 22:20pm UTC, wrote Interesting and thought provoking essay. The thing about analyzing energy...
Maulik Parikh: on 12/2/08 at 14:36pm UTC, wrote Essay Abstract The future differs from the past: it has more...
RECENT FORUM POSTS
H.H.J. Luediger: "Even darker.... one can not easily downrate a racehorse to a donkey, but..." in Undecidability,...
Steve Agnew: "Well thank-you, you are very kind. I have come to appreciate the fact that..." in Quantum Dream Time
Samuel Parsons: "O also means a whole new universe in a box can be recreated a miniverse..." in Outside the Box
Samuel Parsons: "Is it 127? It's always comes back here. Just saying also I'm trying to..." in Outside the Box
Zeeya Merali: "INSPYRE, INternational School on modern PhYsics and REsearch, organized by..." in Welcome to INSPYRE 2020 -...
David Sloan: "Dear Alan, For any discussion regarding the essay contest, the contact..." in Undecidability,...
Jonathan Dickau: "Thank you Peter... For the kind words of explanation. It is looking like..." in From Cosmic Lighthouses...
Lawrence Crowell: "Tejinder, I was intrigued by your FQXi essay. Thanks for this reference to..." in Alternative Models of...
RECENT ARTICLES
click titles to read articles
Building Agency in the Biology Lab
Physicists are using optogenetics techniques to make a rudimentary agent, from cellular components, which can convert measurements into actions using light.
Think Quantum to Build Better AI
Investigating how quantum memory storage could aid machine learning and how quantum interactions with the environment may have played a role in evolution.
Outside the Box
A proposed quantum set-up that could predict your game-playing strategy resurrects Newcomb’s classic quiz show paradox.
The Quantum Agent
Investigating how the quantum measurement process might be related to the emergence of intelligence, agency and free will.
First Things First: The Physics of Causality
Why do we remember the past and not the future? Untangling the connections between cause and effect, choice, and entropy.
Harish Kumar: on 10/10/19 at 5:54am UTC, wrote It is a pleasant reading your essay. it appears you have examined the...
Narendra Nath: on 12/6/08 at 16:02pm UTC, wrote Dear Dr. Parikh. It is a pleasant reading your essay. it appears you have...
Carl Brannen: on 12/2/08 at 22:20pm UTC, wrote Interesting and thought provoking essay. The thing about analyzing energy...
Maulik Parikh: on 12/2/08 at 14:36pm UTC, wrote Essay Abstract The future differs from the past: it has more...
RECENT FORUM POSTS
H.H.J. Luediger: "Even darker.... one can not easily downrate a racehorse to a donkey, but..." in Undecidability,...
Steve Agnew: "Well thank-you, you are very kind. I have come to appreciate the fact that..." in Quantum Dream Time
Samuel Parsons: "O also means a whole new universe in a box can be recreated a miniverse..." in Outside the Box
Samuel Parsons: "Is it 127? It's always comes back here. Just saying also I'm trying to..." in Outside the Box
Zeeya Merali: "INSPYRE, INternational School on modern PhYsics and REsearch, organized by..." in Welcome to INSPYRE 2020 -...
David Sloan: "Dear Alan, For any discussion regarding the essay contest, the contact..." in Undecidability,...
Jonathan Dickau: "Thank you Peter... For the kind words of explanation. It is looking like..." in From Cosmic Lighthouses...
Lawrence Crowell: "Tejinder, I was intrigued by your FQXi essay. Thanks for this reference to..." in Alternative Models of...
RECENT ARTICLES
click titles to read articles
Building Agency in the Biology Lab
Physicists are using optogenetics techniques to make a rudimentary agent, from cellular components, which can convert measurements into actions using light.
Think Quantum to Build Better AI
Investigating how quantum memory storage could aid machine learning and how quantum interactions with the environment may have played a role in evolution.
Outside the Box
A proposed quantum set-up that could predict your game-playing strategy resurrects Newcomb’s classic quiz show paradox.
The Quantum Agent
Investigating how the quantum measurement process might be related to the emergence of intelligence, agency and free will.
First Things First: The Physics of Causality
Why do we remember the past and not the future? Untangling the connections between cause and effect, choice, and entropy.
FQXi FORUM
May 29, 2020
CATEGORY:
The Nature of Time Essay Contest (2008)
[back]
TOPIC: Weakening Gravity's Grip on the Arrow of Time by Maulik Parikh [refresh]
TOPIC: Weakening Gravity's Grip on the Arrow of Time by Maulik Parikh [refresh]
Essay Abstract
The future differs from the past: it has more entropy. No theoretical framework including inflation has yet provided a dynamical origin for this elementary fact, the thermodynamic arrow of time. I argue that by weakening the strength or range of gravity at early times, one can find a natural way to obtain the smooth conditions present in the early universe.
Author Bio
Maulik Parikh is a theoretical high-energy physicist. He did his bachelor's at the University of California at Berkeley followed by a PhD in physics from Princeton University. After post-doctoral stints at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands and at Columbia University, he is now faculty at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) in India. In 2004 he won the Gravity Research Foundation essay competition for a paper he wrote on black holes.
Download Essay PDF File
The future differs from the past: it has more entropy. No theoretical framework including inflation has yet provided a dynamical origin for this elementary fact, the thermodynamic arrow of time. I argue that by weakening the strength or range of gravity at early times, one can find a natural way to obtain the smooth conditions present in the early universe.
Author Bio
Maulik Parikh is a theoretical high-energy physicist. He did his bachelor's at the University of California at Berkeley followed by a PhD in physics from Princeton University. After post-doctoral stints at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands and at Columbia University, he is now faculty at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) in India. In 2004 he won the Gravity Research Foundation essay competition for a paper he wrote on black holes.
Download Essay PDF File
Interesting and thought provoking essay.
The thing about analyzing energy in the context of the Big Bang is that energy is due to the symmetry of physics with respect to time (by Noether's theorem). But the Big Bang indicates a lack of symmetry in something, so maybe energy, or gravity, was not conserved.
The thing about analyzing energy in the context of the Big Bang is that energy is due to the symmetry of physics with respect to time (by Noether's theorem). But the Big Bang indicates a lack of symmetry in something, so maybe energy, or gravity, was not conserved.
Dear Dr. Parikh.
It is a pleasant reading your essay. it appears you have examined the problem in a chronological way. You demand the weakening of gravity to start with. It may either be in strength or in range. The later means that there is a saturation aspect attached to it. In this context, it is interesting to examine the initial very short lived inflation of the Universe. Its explanation may well include repulsive nature of gravity at short range that becomes attractive otherwise. This is similar to what has been accepted to be true for the strong nuclear force.
In my essay here, i have tried to provide some perspectives for the early universe. Being a novice in the field, i could contemplate in a more or less unbaised manner, so i feel! can you provide some comments, in spite of your late arrival in this contest?
It is a pleasant reading your essay. it appears you have examined the problem in a chronological way. You demand the weakening of gravity to start with. It may either be in strength or in range. The later means that there is a saturation aspect attached to it. In this context, it is interesting to examine the initial very short lived inflation of the Universe. Its explanation may well include repulsive nature of gravity at short range that becomes attractive otherwise. This is similar to what has been accepted to be true for the strong nuclear force.
In my essay here, i have tried to provide some perspectives for the early universe. Being a novice in the field, i could contemplate in a more or less unbaised manner, so i feel! can you provide some comments, in spite of your late arrival in this contest?
Login or create account to post reply or comment.