Physical origins of time asymmetry

 Content: Time today / J.A. Wheeler --
 Complexity in the universe / C.H. Bennett --
 Information, entropy, and chaos / C.M. Caves --
 Demonic heat engines / B.W. Schumacher --
 Which processes satisfy the second law? / T.M. Cover --
 Causal asymmetry from statistics / S. Lloyd --
 Stirring up trouble / P.C.W. Davies --
 Time's arrow and Boltzmann's entropy / J.L. Lebowitz --
 Statistical irreversibility : Classical and quantum / R.B. Griffiths --
 Quantum fluctuations and irreversibility / J. Pérez-Mercader --
 Preferred sets of states, predictability, classicality, and environment-induced decoherence / W.H. Zurek --
 Decoherence in quantum Brownian motion / J.P. Paz --
 Decoherence without complexity and without an arrow of time / B. DeWitt --
 The decoherence functional in the Caldeira-Leggett model / H.F. Dowker & J.J. Haliwell --
 Two perspectives on a decohering spin / A. Albrecht --
 Is time assymetry logically prior to quantum mechanics? / W.K. Wootters. Time and quantum mechanics / R. Omnès --
 Is time sharp or diffused? / I. Bialynicki-Birula --
 Time assymetry and the interpretation of quantum theory / V. Mukhanov --
 Clock time and entropy / D.N. Page --
 Time-symmetric cosmology and definite quantum measurements / L.S. Schulman --
 Time symmetry and asymmetry in quantum mechanics and quantum cosmology / M. Gell-Mann & J.B. Hartle --
 The No boundary condition and the arrow of time / S.W. Hawking --
 The Arrow of time and the no-boundary proposal / R. Laflamme --
 Quantum cosmology and time asymmetry / J.J. Halliwell --
 Time (a- )symmetry in a recollapsing quantum universe / H.D. Zeh --
 The emergence of time and its arrow from timelessness / J.B. Barbour --
 Wormholes and time asymmetry / P.F. González-Diaz --
 Time, Mach's principle and quantum cosmology / T. Padmanabhan --
 Time at early times / J. Louko --
 Abandoning prejudices about time reparametrization invariance / C. Teitelboim. Physics in knots / D. Holz, et al. --
 Temperature and time in the geometry of rotating black holes / J.D. Brown & J.W. York, Jr. --
 Fluctuation, dissipation and irreversibility in cosmology / B.L. Hu --
 Fluctuation-dissipation theorem in relativity and the cosmological constant / E. Mottola.
 Abstract:             In the world about us, the past is distinctly different from the future. More precisely, we say that the processes going on in the world are asymmetric in time, or display an arrow of time. Yet this manifest fact of our experience is particularly difficult to explain in terms of the fundamental laws of physics. Newton's laws, quantum mechanics, electromagnetism, Einstein's theory of gravity, etc., make no distinction between the past and future - they are time-symmetric. Reconciliation of these profoundly conflicting facts is the topic of this volume. It is an interdisciplinary survey of the variety of interconnected phenomena defining arrows of time, and their possible explanations in terms of underlying time-symmetric laws of physics