Negative Time

Negative Time is a concept that has arose in quantum mechanics as the possibility that time may not be entirely linear, Mathematics suggest that time can have both a positive and a negative value — that it can move both forwards and backwards — and some experimental data may possibly support this hypothesis, according to some interpretations.

However, negative time remains a controversial subject. Some believe that the data can be explained as distortions in the way that light interacts with the atoms of a material, [1] and how these interactions are measured, which is

Notes

• Negative time has been thought of a a distortion in how light waves interact with matter for decades. [1]
• Latest experiments (conducted by Aephraim Steinberg and Daniela Angulo, from University of Toronto) have challenged these notions.
  • They measure length of time atoms absorb then emit light, “exciting” the atoms, some of these events appear to be less than zero time.
  • When atoms pass through a material, they are absorbed and emitted by the atoms, momentarily changing their state. Measuring duration of the interactions, it appears that the photons had exited the material before they had entirely entered the material, highlighting strange behaviour of photons and photon interactions that we don’t yet understand.
  • This breaching of the tenets of image time for special relativity, highlights probabilistic characteristics of quantum mechanics. [1] Time behaves like an arbitrary group of outcomes. [1] Photons appear to define multiple states (almost simultaneously) creating scenarios contrary to linear timelines. [1]
  • Some suggest the term negative time is misleading, suggesting this as a phase shift in the path of the photon, and not a property of time. [1] But at present, this behaviour is not understood, and there are a range of possibilities to explain these observations — potentially many we have not yet conceived of.

References

1. S., Sanusha. Negative time, discovered for the first time in history: It goes from the future to the past. 30 Dec 2024. https://www.ecoticias.com/en/negative-time-discovered/10035/. Accessed 01 Jan 2025.