Abstract
Traditional discussions about the arrow of time in general involve the concept of entropy. In the cosmological context, the direction past-to-future is usually related to the direction of the gradient of the entropy function of the universe. But the definition of the entropy of the universe is a very controversial matter. Moreover, thermodynamics is a phenomenological theory. Geometrical properties of space-time provide a more fundamental and less controversial way of defining an arrow of time for the universe as a whole. We will call the arrow defined only on the basis of the geometrical properties of space-time, independently of any entropic considerations, “the global arrow of time.” In this paper we will argue that: (i) if certain conditions are satisfied, it is possible to define a global arrow of time for the universe as a whole, and (ii) the standard models of contemporary cosmology satisfy these conditions.
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Castagnino, M., Lombardi, O. & Lara, L. The Global Arrow of Time as a Geometrical Property of the Universe. Foundations of Physics 33, 877–912 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025665410999
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025665410999