The nature of time has long fascinated physicists and the general public. As an irresistible flow into which all events are embedded, time cannot be slowed or accelerated, nor can it be undone or turned back. In The River of Time , Igor Novikov describes how the thinkers throughout history have defined time and how these discoveries demonstrate that humans may influence time's flow. He describes how time flows in specific regions of the Universe, how it stops in black holes and splashes over the brim in white holes, and how time may convert into space and vice versa. Exploring time's genesis at the Big Bang, Novikov details how recent discoveries indicate that time machine travel might be possible. Igor Novikov is the Director of the Theoretical Astrophysics Center and Professor of the Astronomical Observatory of Copenhagen University. He began his scientific career at the Moscow State University and has since been affiliated with the Institute of Applied Mathematics, Moscow, the Space Research Institute, Moscow, and Copenhagen University. He has published more than 250 scientific papers and 150 articles and is the co-author of Edwin Hubble: Discoverer of the Big Bang (Cambridge, 1993) and Black Holes and the Universe (Cambridge, 1993). Previous paperback edition (1998) 0-521-46737-3

Table of Contents

Preface to the Russian edition; Preface to the English edition; 1. Origins of thinking about time; 2. Science of time is born; 3. Light; 4. The pace of time can be slowed down!; 5. Time machine; 6. Time, space and gravitation; 7. Holes in space and time; 8. Energy extracted from black holes; 9. Towards the sources of the river of time; 10. Journey to unusual depths; 11. Grand unification; 12. Sources; 13. What produces the flow of time and why in a single direction only?; 14. Against the flow; 15. Can we change the past?; Conclusion; Name index; Subject index.