New scientific study has found a connection between dark energy and the second law of thermodynamics. Now it is assumed that the dark energy is in some way responsible for time running exclusively forward, ie. that we can't go back into the past.
Time is one of the factors that we take for granted. We all know that it can't go back, but we rarely ask ourselves why this is so. Why does time go in only one direction - forward?
One direction of time
And while we, mere mortals, accept this as inevitable the fact, scientists are constantly confused by this issue. The mystery is even greater when we consider that certain physical processes are reversible in time.
Take, for example, gravity - it always works the same, regardless of which direction time is moving. Our planet would orbit around the Sun in the same way, only in the opposite direction, if time would suddenly begin to run backward and we wouldn't feel any change.
However, there is an aspect of the universe that is completely dependent on the direction of the flow of time - this is the second law of thermodynamics. It says that a closed system (like our Universe) always strives for a state of increasing disorganization. This rule is also called Entropy.
The second law of thermodynamics states that bodies increasingly move away from each other, despite the force of gravity.
What does entropy represent in practical terms?
Because of the second law of thermodynamics, a broken egg can't be suddenly brought back together, nor what died can revive. What is done cannot be undone, things are deteriorating, everything ages and falls apart, the past cannot be returned ... The universe is constantly striving for disintegration, chaos and disorganization.
Complex systems - like planets, stars, human beings and the like, require an enormous amount of energy to be produced, which only increases the overall amount of entropy of the system. The second law of thermodynamics is a mechanism that makes time unidirectional. So, now we know how it works. Still, it doesn't give us the answer to the question of why this is so.
There's a dark connection
In an attempt to understand the origin and cause of unidirectional time, two Armenian physicists, A. E. Allahverdyan and V. G. Gurzadyan, studied the relationship between dark energy and the second law of thermodynamics.
Scientists believe that dark energy is responsible for the fact that the universe is constantly expanding, despite the force of gravity that works between cosmic bodies. If there were no dark energy, the whole universe would, under the influence of gravity, become thicker and thicker, until it would eventually collapse into itself. More precisely, it would once again come to the starting point from which everything was created (if we accept the theory of the Big Bang). Ideally, gravity would hold the whole universe constantly in the same condition and relationships, so the time might not have any impact on the space.
If the total amount of mass and energy always remains the same, the universe should last forever. However, the second law of thermodynamics complicates things. It represents a kind of death sentence to the universe. Because of it, the total amount of matter and energy in the universe is becoming more chaotic, disorganized and useless.
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If it weren't for that force that makes all things in the universe constantly move away from each other, that makes the entire system to the state of growing chaos and disorganization, the passage of time might have been possible in both directions (forward and backward), ie., time would lose the relevance it has.
This makes scientists come to the conclusion that the second law of thermodynamics and dark energy are just two faces of the same phenomenon - the mysterious cause of one direction of time.
The first law of thermodynamics says that the total amount of matter and energy in the universe is always the same. You can't make something out of nothing, nor something that exists can disappear. There is only a transformation of matter into energy and energy into matter.
If the total amount of mass and energy always remains the same, the universe should last forever. However, the second law of thermodynamics complicates things. It represents a kind of death sentence to the universe. Because of it, the total amount of matter and energy in the universe is becoming more chaotic, disorganized and useless.
If it weren't for that force that makes all things in the universe constantly move away from each other, that makes the entire system to the state of growing chaos and disorganization, the passage of time might have been possible in both directions (forward and backward), ie., time would lose the relevance it has.
This makes scientists come to the conclusion that the second law of thermodynamics and dark energy are just two faces of the same phenomenon - the mysterious cause of one direction of time.
