PHYSICAL AND STABLE CLOSED TIME-LIKE CURVES

CHIU MAN HO, THOMAS J. WEILER
2013 Modern Physics Letters A  
We construct a class of closed timelike curves (CTCs) using a compactified extra dimension u. A nonzero metric element g_tu(u) enables particles to travel backwards in global time t. The compactified dimension guarantees that the geodesic curve closes in u. The effective 2D (t and u) nature of the metric ensures that spacetime is flat, therein satisfying all the classical stability conditions as expressed by the energy conditions. Finally, stationarity of the metric guarantees that a particle's
more » ... energy is conserved. The pathologies that plague many hypothesized metrics admitting CTCs, e.g. an infinite cylinder of matter, a negative energy-distribution, particle acceleration/blue-shifting along the CTC, do not occur within our metric class.
doi:10.1142/s0217732312502379 fatcat:ko6rtx5lqnbzhgpzlxscyzztnu