Australian Scientists Claim They've Proven That Time Travel Is Mathematically Possible

Scientists from Australia believe that they have solved a logical paradox and proven that time travel is mathematically possible.

Now, bear with us here, because this is seriously complex and fairly difficult to explain without taking hours.

Basically, between Einstein's famous theory of general relativity and the world of classical dynamics lies an important paradox known as the grandfather paradox.

You see, without getting too far into the depths of those specific theories, the important thing to note is that in Einstein's theory you could theoretically go back in time to kill your grandfather, and still exist, whereas classical dynamics states that you'd cease to exist if you did such a thing.

Still with me? Fair play to you.

Now, the physics boffins over at the University of Queensland reckon they've reconciled those two theories, thus proving that time travel is at least theoretically possible.

Let's see what they've got to say for themselves, shall we?

Germain Tobar, who led the research, said: "As physicists, we want to understand the universe's most basic, underlying laws and for years I've puzzled on how the science of dynamics can square with Einstein's predictions.

"Is time travel mathematically possible?"

Like everything else right now, their research was consumed by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

They theorised that a time traveller could go back in time to kill the pandemic's first infected person - or 'patient zero' - and, in doing so, prevent the pandemic.

Einstein's theory allows the time traveller to go back, but classical dynamics means that the sequence of events can't be altered, because if the time traveller prevented the virus, it would also negate the need for the time traveller to go back in the first place, and so on, and so on.

Tobar tried to explain further: "In the coronavirus patient zero example, you might try and stop patient zero from becoming infected, but in doing so you would catch the virus and become patient zero, or someone else would,

"No matter what you did, the salient events would just recalibrate around you. This would mean that - no matter your actions - the pandemic would occur, giving your younger self the motivation to go back and stop it. Try as you might to create a paradox, the events will always adjust themselves to avoid any inconsistency.

"The range of mathematical processes we discovered show that time travel with free will is logically possible in our universe without any paradox."

Righto, then.

The supervisor of this research, and someone well-placed to actually understand this, is Dr Fabio Costa.

He said: "The maths checks out - and the results are the stuff of science fiction."

If you want to read the full paper, it's been published in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity.

Featured Image Credit: Pixabay

Topics: Science, World News, Interesting, Technology, Weird

Tom Wood

Tom Wood is a LADbible journalist and Twin Peaks enthusiast. Despite having a career in football cut short by a chronic lack of talent, he managed to obtain degrees from both the University of London and Salford. According to his French teacher, at the weekend he mostly likes to play football and go to the park with his brother. Contact Tom on [email protected]

@TPWagwim