Singla, 1

Chetanya Singla

Margaret Duvall

ENL 003A

8 June 2022

TIME TRAVEL - The Tachyonic Way

In Back to The Future, where Mr. McFly makes a time travel car using some

tesla coils on the back that magically accelerates the car to the speed of light, allowing

him to tear wormholes through the space-time continuum; it was still our childhood

and huge respect to that. But have you ever wondered what time travel really is like?

In a nutshell, it is creating a hole through space and time to your destination, which

requires massive amounts of energy and a very special type of particle, Tachyon, that

in theory travels faster than the speed of light. The known fact though, tachyons are

produced when a particle accelerator functions at its maximum efficiency but it is still

impossible to harvest them. Though a great comparison of tachyons with the string

theory to prove their condensation and existence has been done by the author Takao

Suyama, Ph.D. Modern Physics and Astrophysics. Takao is a professor in the

Department of Physics, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa. Takao’s argument and the

claim are very well researched and hence he is one expert in this field. This article

was published in the AIP (American Institute of Physics) Conference Proceedings

Journal that aims towards reporting findings presented/discussed at scientific

meetings from large international conferences to small specialist workshops with

subject areas ranging from physical sciences, physics, math, chemistry, materials

science, and engineering. This article is especially relevant to the journal as Tachyons
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are existent although there aren’t enough discussions about their presence in particle

accelerators and more. The author did a good job in explaining an important aspect of

the condensation of these particles, the dangers of harvesting them that can lead to

several mini unstable black holes, and comparing them to quarks that show similar

conditions but are way more accessible. Zahra Sadeghizadeh, a professor in UC

Davis’ MAE Department reviewed this article. She is the assistant professor here at

UC Davis and is best known for her specialization in rocket propulsion, fluid

mechanics, and orbital mechanics. Tachyonic Particles are mostly found or thought of

in interstellar travel and Dr. Anindita Bhatacharjee, Ph.D. Astrophysics, ISRO, too

briefly reviewed this article.

Takao stands strong with his principles, on his argument that tachyonic

particles do show linear behavior with some asymptomatic irregularities like turning

into a mini black hole. He argues to represent tachyons relation with AdS_3 (Anti-

Deep Space Matter). He also makes sure there are no ethical compromises that

undermine the argument so that the audience (members of the AIP Conference

Proceedings and globally public in general), do not face a problem understanding or

learning. In fact, he argues that some types of tachyons can be stabilized by

condensing them, according to new research. However, the nature of all tachyons and

the feasibility of stabilizing them are still unknown. The thesis statement remains

pretty unchanged over the remainder of the article as this was more of a scientific

research explanation that just proves a point and nothing more. Takao ensures to

properly cite all the evidence and references he uses in the article by paraphrasing

them and linking the reference in a well-formatted citation at the end. “Note that this

action has been studied numerically in [10][11], and reconsidered recently in [12].”

(Takao, page 4) “10. M.Dine, E.Gorbatov, I.R.Klebanov, M.Krasnitz, JHEP - 0407

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(2004) 034, [arXiv:hep-th/0303076]; 11. T.Suyama, [arXiv:hep-th/0308030]. 12.

H.Yang, B.Zwiebach, [arXiv:hep-th/0506076].” (Takao, page 5). Takao concludes by

confirming that the time direction is expected to be wick rotated in this prescription.

The comparable solution in the Lorentzian signature may be found naively. However,

there is a flaw in both the world sheet and target space descriptions. Because there is a

linear dilation backdrop in the former, Wick rotation is impossible without modifying

the centre charge. The behavior of the classical solution in the Lorentzian signature is

considerably different from that in the Euclidean signature, as illustrated in [12]. This

article is persuasive in determining tachyonic condensation even though it still is a

theoretical and under research topic. Several theories and formulas derived based on

open and closed string theories are presented that haven’t been determined incorrect

and so prove the author’s argument. This tells that the article does a good job of

bringing out more findings and proving them.

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Work Cited

Suyama, Takao. “Tachyons in Compact Spaces.” AIP Publishing, 1 Dec. 2005,

https://aip.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.2149736.