Dedicated to Rafael Sorkin, whose tutoring and friendship from third grade on is responsible for one of us (JF) having spent his adult life in physics and whose work has inspired both of us. In v.2, some references are updated, and references are added to early work on 2+1 spacetimes and to work on event-horizon topology
Over the past two decades, substantial efforts have been made to understand the way in which physics enforces the ordinary topology and causal structure that we observe, from subnuclear to cosmological scales. We review the status of topological censorship and the topology of event horizons; chronology protection in classical and semiclassical gravity; and related progress in establishing quantum energy inequalities.
In principe, General Relativity seems to allow the existence of closed timelike curves (CTC). However, when quantum effects are considered, it is likely that their existence is prevented by some kind of chronological protection mechanism, as Hawking conjectured. Confirming or refuting the conjecture would require a full quantum theory of gravity. Meanwhile, the use of simulations could shed some light on this issue. We propose simulations of CTCs in a quantum system as well as in a classical one. In the quantum simulation, some restrictions appear that are not present in the classical setup, w…
We propose an analogue quantum simulator of a 1+1 D spacetime containing non-causal curves,in particular, null geodesics going back in time, by means of a dc-SQUID array embedded on an open superconducting transmission line. This is achieved by mimicking the spatial dependence of the metric with the propagation speed of the electromagnetic field in the simulator, which can be modulated by an external magnetic flux. We show that it is possible to simulate a spacetime region containing non-causal null geodesics, but not a full spacetime containing a chronological horizon separating regions with …
Analogue gravity systems offer many insights into gravitational phenomena, both at the classical and at the semiclassical level. The existence of an underlying Minkowskian structure (or Galilean in the non-relativistic limit) in the laboratory has been argued to directly forbid the simulation of geometries with Closed Timelike Curves (CTCs) within analogue systems. We will show that this is not strictly the case. In principle, it is possible to simulate spacetimes with CTCs whenever this does not entail the presence of a chronological horizon separating regions with CTCs from regions that do n…
We extend in two directions our recent investigation of strongly interacting quantum fields in a class of spacetimes with chronology horizons (Misner spacetimes). First, we generalize to arbitrary dimensions the holographic mechanism of chronology protection in the absence of gravitational backreaction. The AdS geometry dual to a conformal field theory in these spacetimes shows, in every dimension, an entire separation between the bulk duals of the chronal and non-chronal regions, with the former being complete, regular geometries. In some instances the protection requires the inclusion of non…
