Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 3, 2026

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments
Published on: January 23, 2017
Closed timelike curves via postselection: theory and experimental test of consistency
Seth Lloyd1, Lorenzo Maccone, Raul Garcia-Patron
1xQIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307, USA.
Abstract:
Closed timelike curves (CTCs) are trajectories in spacetime that effectively travel backwards in time: a test particle following a CTC can interact with its former self in the past. A widely accepted quantum theory of CTCs was proposed by Deutsch. Here we analyze an alternative quantum formulation of CTCs based on teleportation and postselection, and show that it is inequivalent to Deutsch's. The predictions or retrodictions of our theory can be simulated experimentally: we report the results of an experiment illustrating how in our particular theory the "grandfather paradox" is resolved.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Woodward–Hoffmann Selection Rules and Microscopic Reversibility
Frequency-dependent Selection
Space-Time Curvature and the General Theory of Relativity
This has been verified in many experiments. However, space and time are no longer absolute. Two observers moving relative to one another do not agree on the length of objects or the passage of time. The mechanics of objects based on Newton's laws of motion,...
Survival Curves
The Kaplan-Meier estimator is the most common method for constructing survival curves. This...
Introduction to Horizontal Curves
Curve Equations

