Quantum

Time Running Backwards, and Where It Stops: Superoscillations of Proper Time and the Memory of the Environment

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Based on a feed excerpt; full article content has not been acquired. Source evidence retrieved 11/11/2026, 05:13:24 UTC.

Briefings

A quantum experiment using a sealed cell containing excited atoms and their radiation field demonstrates that superoscillations of proper time can reverse decay processes. By post-selecting the control, researchers found the system evolved for a proper time of alpha_w times the original duration, where alpha_w could exceed unity or be negative. The witness held only while the decay was younger than the environment's memory time; beyond this point, the post-selection amplified the energy spread rather than the decay rate, making reversal impossible without an exponentially small post-selection probability.

Key points

• A quantum system in a superposition of proper times evolves by the same dynamics for different durations in each branch.
• The witness holds only while the decay is younger than the memory time of the environment, after which the emission becomes Markovian.

Context

This research investigates how far back a quantum time-translation machine can run an irreversible process, using a sealed cell as the test system and projective measurement as the witness.

Limitations

The experiment's findings are limited to the specific conditions of the sealed cell test system and the two-branch superposition. The results do not apply to systems with higher bandwidths or environments with broader spectral distributions, where the witness fails.

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