---
title: "New Research Shows That Time Travel Is Mathematically Possible"
description: "We have the math locked down. Next, we need the materials."
date: "2017-04-28"
modified: "2017-04-28"
authors:
  - name: "Dom Galeon"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/domgaleon"
url: "https://futurism.com/new-research-shows-that-time-travel-is-mathematically-possible"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
tags:
  - "Doctor Who"
  - "tardis"
  - "time machine"
  - "Time Travel"
---

# New Research Shows That Time Travel Is Mathematically Possible

![tardis time machine traversable acausal retrograde domain in space-time time traveling](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/time-travel.png>)
*\<em\>Image: \<a href="https://pixabay.com/en/time-tunnel-time-distortion-tunnel-1961351/" target="\_blank"\>Pixabay\</a\>\</em\>*

## Bending Time

Even before Einstein theorized that time is relative and flexible, humanity had already been imagining [the possibility of time travel](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Machine>). In fact, science fiction is filled with time travelers. Some use metahuman abilities to do so, but most rely on a device generally known as a time machine. Now, two physicists think that it's time to [bring the time machine into the real world](<https://m.phys.org/news/2017-04-math-possibility.html>) — sort of.

\[infographic postid="54446"\]\[/infographic\]

"People think of time travel as something as fiction. And we tend to think it's not possible because we don't actually do it," Ben Tippett, a theoretical physicist and mathematician from the [University of British Columbia](<https://www.ubc.ca/>), [said in a UBC news release](<https://news.ok.ubc.ca/2017/04/27/ubc-instructor-uses-math-to-investigate-possibility-of-time-travel/>). "But, mathematically, it is possible."

Essentially, what Tippet and [University of Maryland](<https://www.umd.edu/>) astrophysicist David Tsang developed is a mathematical formula that uses [Einstein's General Relativity theory](<https://futurism.com/amazing-animation-explaining-einsteins-theory-relativity>) to prove that time travel is possible, in theory. That is, time travel fitting a layperson's understanding of the concept as moving "backwards and forwards through time and space, as interpreted by an external observer," according to the abstract of their paper, which is [published in the journal ](<http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6382/aa6549/meta;jsessionid=CBC0B76BE2309D8FB27FC0BA05D302C7.c4.iopscience.cld.iop.org>)*[Classical and Quantum Gravity](<http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6382/aa6549/meta;jsessionid=CBC0B76BE2309D8FB27FC0BA05D302C7.c4.iopscience.cld.iop.org>)*.

Oh, and they're calling it a TARDIS — yes, "Doctor Who" fans, hurray! — which stands for a Traversable Acausal Retrograde Domain in Space-time.

## Feasible but Not Possible. Yet.

"My model of a time machine uses the curved space-time to bend time into a circle for the passengers, not in a straight line," Tippet explained. "That circle takes us back in time." Simply put, their model assumes that time could curve around high-mass objects in the same way that physical space does in the universe.

For Tippet and Tsang, a TARDIS is a space-time geometry "bubble" that travels faster than the speed of light. "It is a box which travels 'forwards' and then 'backwards' in time along a circular path through spacetime," they wrote in their paper.

Unfortunately, it's still not possible to construct such a time machine. "While is it mathematically feasible, it is not yet possible to build a space-time machine because we need materials — which we call exotic matter — to bend space-time in these impossible ways, but they have yet to be discovered," Tippet explained.

![Image credit: Tippet and Yang](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2419821984-time.jpg>)
*Image credit: *B.K. Tippet and Yang**

Indeed, their work isn't the first to suggest that time traveling can be done. Various other experiments, including those that [rely on photon stimulation](<https://futurism.com/time-travel-could-become-reality-sooner-than-you-think>), suggest that [time travel is feasible](<https://futurism.com/scientists-simulate-time-travel-with-light-particles>). Another theory explores [the potential particles of time](<https://futurism.com/category/sci-fi-future>).

However, some think that a time machine wouldn't be feasible because time traveling itself isn't possible. One points to [the intimate connection between time and energy](<https://futurism.com/how-much-energy-need-power-time-machine>) as the reason time traveling is improbable. Another suggests that time travel isn't going to work because [there's no future to travel to yet](<https://futurism.com/the-physics-of-time-why-time-travel-may-be-impossible>).

Whatever the case may be, there's one thing that these researchers all agree on. As Tippet put it, "Studying space-time is both fascinating and problematic."

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-john-galeon-9b086925/>)  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/domgaleon>)