People usually talk about arrow of time. But this implies an implicit assumption that time is one dimensional. I'd like to know if it is possible that time is two dimensional or higher? What will happen and how to understand if it is true?
yes it is, and I believe there are at least three, possibly more. This would make sense in string theory and M-Theory for there to be multiple dimesnions of time. I conceive time as a landscape. depending on where you are is what time you are in. Because theoretically you can travel in any direction, but certanly travel in one, time must consist of several layers or dimensions. otherwise time would be a static condition. Because there is a localized bending of time-space near the event horizon of a Black Hole, its fair to assume time is dynamic in nature.
It could be a possibility. Until it is verified, its just a hypothesis...
Thank you Rountree. You conceive time as a multi-layer landscape. In the view of string theory, some of dimensions beyond 4 are considered to be very tiny, circular and closed. I have no idea if other time dimensions are included.
Special relativity describes spacetime as a manifold whose metric tensor has a negative eigenvalue. This corresponds to the existence of a "time-like" direction. A metric with multiple negative eigenvalues would correspondingly imply several timelike directions, i.e. multiple time dimensions, but there is no consensus regarding the relationship of these extra "times" to time as conventionally understood.
Nonetheless, theories with more than one dimension of time have sometimes been advanced in physics, whether as a serious description of reality or just as a curious possibility. Itzhak Bars's work on "two-time physics", inspired by symmetry of the extended supersymmetry structure of M-theory, is the most recent and systematic development of the concept. You might also research F-theory.
Dear Shu-Ch'ang,
as far as I know, the question has been investigated by a few theoretical physicists. For instance, you can take a look at the works of Itzhak Bars and Cumrun Vafa, who both introduced theories with two times. For instance see http://arxiv.org/abs/0804.1585, or http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9602022.
Can I participate in your conversation please? I agree with Dr.Rountree and I just want to add that there are other theories in addition to what had mentioned above that assume more than one time dimesions and which are depended basically on fractal space time as an example scale relativity for Nottale and E-infinity theory for Al-Neshaie. with best regards
The problem with time is we are not dealing with it from its physical origin, we only assume it as a clock measure seconds, what happened to the clock measure is only governed by the relative speed. This is only the appearence but there is something deeper that the scientists ought to search for to study what really the origin of time.as example it may be related to speed of light directly and there may be a limit to that time as its to speed limit c.
the answer to your question is in the arrow of time, which is related to entropy, and the growth of entropy. If the growth of entropy is due to multi dimensional effects, then what causes that multi dimensional entropy shift will defacto mean multi dimensional time. It is as simple as that. Time and entropy are co dependent on each other
As far as we stay in the model of manifold endowed with some metric g (meaning a bilinear symmetric form), the tangent space at any point breaks down according to the sign of g(u,u) for any vector, so we have time and space vectors. Moreover the subset of time vectors (supposed to represent the velocity of matter) is always connected but if there is only one time dimension. So, if there were two or more time dimensions there would be no way to define "past" and "future".. And this result holds even if some of these dimensions are closed. Is it critical from a physical point of view ? It certainly would have consequences about our understanding of causality.
The two time space time can define causality by multiway as an example take the two time theory by Izhak Bars which assumes a shadow relation between the observed time and the time of events happening
In order to treat acceleration in space-time M4 we need an addtional time variable, scalar - not a dimension. The mathematical treatment fo this concept has to do with the dual time concept of Newton (absolute time and relative duratio). Please read my attached paper on the formalization of the "time-arrow" concept and its usefulness to avoid the so called synmetrical clock paradox (Dingle).
The short answer is that yes - there's a time dimension for every dimension of space but if you do the math, it all adds up to the same effect, as if there was just one...
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