Time reversal operations, representations of the Lorentz group, and the direction of time

Abstract

A theory is usually said to be time reversible if whenever a sequence of states S 1( t 1), S 2( t 2), S 3( t 3) is possible according to that theory, then the reverse sequence of time reversed states S 3 T ( t 1), S 2 T ( t 2), S 1 T ( t 3) is also possible according to that theory; i.e., one normally not only inverts the sequence of states, but also operates on the states with a time reversal operator T. David Albert and Paul Horwich have suggested that one should not allow such time reversal operations T on states. I will argue that time reversal operations on fundamental states should be allowed. I will furthermore argue that the form that time reversal operations take is determined by the type of fundamental geometric quantities that occur in nature and that we have good reason to believe that the fundamental geometric quantities that occur in nature correspond to irreducible representations of the Lorentz transformations. Finally, I will argue that we have good reason to believe that space-time has a temporal orientation.