Irreversibility in a simple reversible model.

Abstract

This paper studies a parametrized family of familiar generalized Baker maps, viewed as simple models of time-reversible evolution. Mapping the unit square onto itself, the maps are partly contracting and partly expanding, but they preserve the global measure of the definition domain. They possess periodic orbits of any period, and all maps of the set have attractors with well defined structure. The explicit construction of the attractors is described and their structure is studied in detail. There is a precise sense in which one can speak about the absolute age of a state, regardless of whether the latter is applied to a single point, a set of points, or a distribution function. One can then view the whole trajectory as a set of past, present, and future states. This viewpoint is then applied to show that it is impossible to define a priori states with very large "negative age." Such states can be defined only a posteriori. This gives precise sense to irreversibility--or the "arrow of time"--in these time-reversible maps, and is suggested as an explanation of the second law of thermodynamics also for some realistic physical systems.