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Physical Time and Thermal Clocks

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Abstract

In this paper I discuss the concept of time in physics. I consider the thermal time hypothesis and I claim that thermal clocks and atomic clocks measure different physical times, whereby thermal time and relativistic time are not compatible with each other. This hypothesis opens the possibility of a new foundation of the theory of physical time, and new perspectives in theoretical and philosophical researches.

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Notes

  1. The measure of durations in Newton is relative and approximate as obtained through devices that simulate the flow of absolute time, by definition mathematic, then ideal.

  2. As remarkable we point out the experiments performed by Hafele and Keating [7], through four cesium clocks flying on commercial airlines around the Earth (two to the east and two to the west), and by Alley [8], through three rubidium clocks in flight along a closed path.

  3. To paraphrase the title of a recent Rovelli’s essay [10], we can say that the irreversible reality of time appears in thermodynamical form. It must be emphasized that one of the objectives of theoretical and experimental research should be the description and understanding of reality as it appears, recognizing, in every abstract theorisation, a potential reductionist risk, wherever we want to explain the irreversibility of physical phenomena through the reversible phenomena that seem to constitute their elementary structure.

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Acknowledgments

A special thanks to Silvio Bergia (University of Bologna) for his precious and concrete attention to the development of these ideas. Thanks also to Carlo Rovelli and Julian Barbour for having discussed some aspects of this theoretical analysis of the question of time.

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  1. Liceo Scientifico Belfiore, Via Tione 2, Mantova, Italy

    Claudio Borghi

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  1. Claudio Borghi
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Correspondence to Claudio Borghi.

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Borghi, C. Physical Time and Thermal Clocks. Found Phys 46, 1374–1379 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-016-0030-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-016-0030-y

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