# Loss of Physical Reversibility in Reversible Systems

## TL;DR

This paper explores how reversible dynamical systems with time-reversal symmetry can become practically irreversible due to small measurement errors, revealing a natural arrow of time relevant to nonlinear optics.

## Contribution

It demonstrates that physically small errors can cause irreversible behavior in theoretically reversible systems, connecting reversibility loss to the thermodynamic arrow of time.

## Key findings

- Small measurement errors lead to dramatic differences in input recovery.
- Reversibility loss correlates with outward radiation emission.
- Results are relevant for nonlinear optics imaging and reversal.

## Abstract

A dynamical system is said to be reversible if, given an output, the input can always be recovered in a well-posed manner. Nevertheless, we argue that reversible systems that have a time-reversal symmetry, such as the Nonlinear Schr{\"o}dinger equation and the $\phi ^4$ equation can become "physically irreversible". By this, we mean that realistically-small experimental errors in measuring the output can lead to dramatic differences between the recovered input and the original one. The loss of reversibility reveals a natural "arrow of time", reminiscent of the thermodynamic one, which is the direction in which the radiation is emitted outward. Our results are relevant to imaging and reversal applications in nonlinear optics.