Does QM preclude CTCs?

If QM requires a constant universal time, does this rule out closed time-like curves?

 

Pardon my use of non-standard terminology; it has a lot to do with being a non-scientist.

I was re-reading an article from New Scientist 10 June 2006; Marcus Chown's "Do the Cosmic Twist" and I recalled that I had been puzzled by the following first time round:
"The trouble is, quantum theory requires time to be "universal" - there should never be closed loops of time isolated from the time in the rest of the universe".

Information about quantum time always seems to contain a lot of off-putting equations, so I was hoping for something a bit less technical.

 

Thanks, Ben. Is there any way I can make the article available on this forum without infringing copyright?

 

It is, in fact, only the early part of Chown's article that deals with QM and CTCs. I hope this will give other posters a general flavour. Don't hesitate to ask questions, though. I shall almost certainly have more later.

Marcus Chown’s Article. Looking at the work of Pawel Mazur and George Chapline.

Almost everything we see in the universe rotates, yet most cosmologists believe the cosmos does not rotate.
GR seems to require the universe to look the same in every direction. Obviously, an axis of rotation (although not prohibited in itself) would give the universe a preferred direction.

"General relativity provides an excellent description of what happens in the normal, day-to-day events in the universe, but it fails in “extreme” circumstances. Its equations are unable to tell us anything precise about events such as high-energy particle collisions, for instance, or the collapse of stars into black holes. However, the biggest clue to its limitations, Mazur and Chapline say, is in the way it allows time to break down.”

“General relativity allows the formation of loops in time in certain circumstances,…..”

The article goes on to describe spinning cosmic strings and the formation of CTCs.

"The trouble is, quantum theory requires time to be "universal" - there should never be closed loops of time isolated from the time in the rest of the universe. This means that quantum theory can’t work everywhere in a universe governed by general relativity. And since most physicists reckon quantum theory to be a more accurate description of reality than general relativity, relativity’s view of space and time – what cosmologists call the vacuum – must be wrong.”

M & C developed the idea that GR breaks down in “gravitational vortices”, while still applying elsewhere. They go on to liken this to the effect of stirring a superfluid, but the relationship between relativity’s time and quantum time does not recur.

 

Thanks for the responses, folks. I’ll try following some of the links, and see what I can understand.

There is no suggestion in the article that either Mazur or Chapline doubt the existence of black holes. In fact the bit about CTCs forming around cosmic strings is followed by:

“Mazur and Chapline contend that, according to general relativity, the same thing can happen with a rotating black hole.”