Time travel has long been dismissed as impossible due in part to the infamous “grandfather paradox.” This conundrum asks what would happen if someone traveled back in time and prevented their grandfather from having children, thus erasing the traveler’s existence. However, a new study may have resolved this issue.
By combining general relativity, quantum mechanics, and thermodynamics, the study demonstrates that time travel might be feasible without leading to these logical contradictions.
Our everyday understanding of time is rooted in Newtonian physics, where events progress linearly from the past to the future. But Einstein’s general theory of relativity, completed in 1915, challenges this intuitive assumption. It reveals that the fabric of space-time can behave in ways that defy common sense, as evidenced by phenomena like black holes. One of its most fascinating predictions is the potential existence of closed timelike curves — paths through space-time that loop back on themselves, theoretically allowing a traveler to revisit the past.
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