Recent laboratory demonstrations of temporal interfaces (“time mirrors”) and the longstudied delayed-choice / quantum-eraser class of experiments are frequently described in popular accounts as if present actions literally modify the past. This paper provides a strict physical account of both effects, emphasizing (i) temporal boundary conditions in engineered media that generate time-reflected components and frequency translation without macroscopic time reversal, and (ii) conditional interference recovery in coincidence ensembles that preserves nosignaling and does not permit controllable messaging to the past. We then map these two experimental pillars onto Time-Scalar Field Theory (TSFT), in which time is modeled as a dynamical scalar field Θ(x, t) and electromagnetism and gravitation arise as distinct deformation modes of temporal flow. We show that temporal-interface scattering constitutes an experimentally realized analog of TSFT time-refraction signatures and that delayed-choice phenomena naturally admit a coherence-selection interpretation consistent with TSFT’s present-moment stability criteria. Finally, we propose falsifiable TSFT-specific predictions linking engineered temporal modulation to measurable phase offsets and mixed-mode coupling signatures.
Jordan Gabriel Farrell (Mon,) studied this question.