Time reversal symmetry

Questionasker · Nov 25, 2011

Talking about charges. If someone claims that in his work time reversal symmetry is conserved, does that equal to say he/she is not imposing a magnetic field?

JHamm · Nov 25, 2011

Time reversal symmetry means that if you had recorded the situation and played the tape backwards things would "make sense" in that you could believe that was what really happened (watching some Brownian motion in reverse would make sense, watching a bowling ball slide back up the lane and then launch itself in to your hand doesn't). So how do you think this applies to magnetic fields?

Questionasker · Nov 25, 2011

A charge moving in magnetic field will feel the Lorentz force and rotate. Now if you reverse the velocity at the end of such a process, the charge will not trace the way back so the time reversal symmetry is broken here. I'm just wondering is there another possibility for breaking the time reversal symmetry in such a situation.

JHamm said: ↑

Time reversal symmetry means that if you had recorded the situation and played the tape backwards things would "make sense" in that you could believe that was what really happened (watching some Brownian motion in reverse would make sense, watching a bowling ball slide back up the lane and then launch itself in to your hand doesn't). So how do you think this applies to magnetic fields?

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Time reversal symmetry

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JHamm

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