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Physics
Classical Physics
Electromagnetism
Why is it said that magnetism breaks time reversal symmetry?
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[QUOTE="PeterDonis, post: 6042439, member: 197831"] No, they just show that the solutions of an equation (which, btw, is probably not Maxwell's Equations in the examples you cite, since they are talking about quantum phenomena, not classical electromagnetism) do not have to have the same symmetries as the equation itself does. The latter two references talk about spontaneous symmetry breaking, which is the term commonly used for this phenomenon. A simple example of the phenomenon would be a pencil balanced on its point. The equations describing what happens to the pencil if it tips over are rotationally symmetric; but once the pencil tips over, it will fall in one particular direction, not all of them at once. So the single solution that describes what the pencil actually does is not rotationally symmetric, even though the underlying equations are. The papers you reference are talking about cases where phenomena involving magnetism have the same property: the individual solutions that get realized in experiments do not have time reversal symmetry, even though the underlying equations do. [/QUOTE]
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Physics
Classical Physics
Electromagnetism
Why is it said that magnetism breaks time reversal symmetry?
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