Robert Nemiroff edited sectionINTRODUCTION_.tex  almost 8 years ago

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Physics literature has indicated for many years that superluminal speeds can correspond to backward time travel. \citep{Tolman1917} Such claims are pervasive enough to have become common knowledge, as exemplified by a famous limerick published in 1923: ``There was a young lady named Bright, Whose speed was far faster than light; She set out one day, In a relative way, And returned on the previous night".\citep{Buller1923}  The possibly of closed-loop time travel within the context of special relativity was later mentioned explicitly in 1927 by Reichenbach. \citep{Reichenbach1927} A prominent discussion on the physics of particles moving superluminally within the realm of special relativity was given in 1962 by Bilaniuk Deshpande, and Sudarshan. \citep{Bilaniuk1962} \citet{Bilaniuk1962}  The term ``tachyon" was first coined for faster than light particles by Feinberg \citep{Feinberg1967} who also derived transformation equations for superluminal particles. Tachyonic speeds have been suggested multiple times in the physics literature to address different concerns, for example being convolved with quantum mechanics to create pervasive fields \citep{Feinberg1967}, and to explain consistent results between two separated detectors in quantum entanglement experiments. \citep{Einstein1935}, \citep{Bell1966} The reality of particle tachyons or any local faster-than-light communication mechanism is controversial, at best. Accelerating any material particle from below light speed to the speed of light leads to a divergence in the particle's energy, a physical impossibility. For $v > c$, The Lorentz-FitzGerald Contraction \citep{Lorentz1892}, \citep{FitzGerald1889} $\sqrt{1 - v^2/c^2}$ becomes imaginary, leading to relative quantities like mass, distance, and time becoming ill-defined, classically. Simple tachyonic wavefunctions in quantum mechanics either admit only subluminal or non-localizable solutions. \citep{Chase1993} Experimental reports of particles moving faster than light have all been followed by skeptical inquiries or subsequent retractions. \citep{Opera2011}, \citep{Opera2012} Were tachyonic communications to enable communications backward in time, violations in causality seem to result, a prominent example of which is the Tachyonic Anti-telephone. \citep{Benford1970} For this reason superluminal communication and backward time travel are thought to be impossible. Experimentally, a recent search of Internet databases for ``unknowable-at-the-time" information that might indicate the possibility of backward time travel came up empty. \citep{NemWil2014}