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arXiv:1701.09132

Wave function collapse, non-locality, and space-time structure

Tejinder P. Singh

Published Jan 31, 2017• 3 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Collapse models possibly suggest the need for a better understanding of the structure of space-time. We argue that physical space, and space-time, are emergent features of the Universe, which arise as a result of dynamical collapse of the wave function. The starting point for this argument is the observation that classical time is external to quantum theory, and there ought to exist an equivalent reformulation which does not refer to classical time. We propose such a reformulation, based on a non-commutative special relativity. In the spirit of Trace Dynamics, the reformulation is arrived at, as a statistical thermodynamics of an underlying classical dynamics in which matter and non-commuting space-time degrees of freedom are matrices obeying arbitrary commutation relations. Inevitable statistical fluctuations around equilibrium can explain the emergence of classical matter fields and classical space-time, in the limit in which the universe is dominated by macroscopic objects. The underlying non-commutative structure of space-time also helps understand better the peculiar nature of quantum non-locality, where the effect of wave-function collapse in entangled systems is felt across space-like separations.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1701.09132

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Collapse models possibly suggest the need for a better understanding of the structure of space-time. We argue that physical space, and space-time, are emergent features of the Universe, which arise as a result of dynamical collapse of the wave function. The starting point for this argument is the observation that classical time is external to quantum theory, and there ought to exist an equivalent reformulation which does not refer to classical time. We propose such a reformulation, based on a non-commutative special relativity. In the spirit of Trace Dynamics, the reformulation is arrived at, as a statistical thermodynamics of an underlying classical dynamics in which matter and non-commuting space-time degrees of freedom are matrices obeying arbitrary commutation relations. Inevitable statistical fluctuations around equilibrium can explain the emergence of classical matter fields and classical space-time, in the limit in which the universe is dominated by macroscopic objects. The underlying non-commutative structure of space-time also helps understand better the peculiar nature of quantum non-locality, where the effect of wave-function collapse in entangled systems is felt across space-like separations.
Abstract We propose that space-time results from collapse of the wave function of macroscopic objects, in quantum dynamics. We first argue that there ought to exist a formulation of quantum theory which does not refer to classical time. We then propose such a formulation by invoking an operator Minkowski space-time on the Hilbert space. We suggest relativistic spontaneous localisation as the mechanism for recovering classical space-time from the underlying theory. Quantum interference in time could be one possible signature for operator time, and in fact may have been already observed in the laboratory, on attosecond time scales. A possible prediction of our work seems to be that interference in time will not be seen for ‘time slit’ separations significantly larger than 100 attosecond, if the ideas of operator time and relativistic spontaneous localisation are correct.
There ought to exist a description of quantum field theory which does not depend on an external classical time. To achieve this goal, in a recent paper we have proposed a non-commutative special relativity in which space-time and matter degrees of freedom are treated as classical matrices with arbitrary commutation relations, and a space-time line element is defined using a trace. In the present paper, following the theory of Trace Dynamics, we construct a statistical thermodynamics for the non-commutative special relativity, and show that one arrives at a generalized quantum dynamics in which space and time are non-classical and have an operator status. In a future work, we will show how standard quantum theory on a classical space-time background is recovered from here.
There are various reasons to believe that quantum theory could be an emergent phenomenon. Trace dynamics is an underlying classical dynamics of noncommuting matrices, from which quantum theory and classical mechanics have been shown to emerge, in the thermodynamic approximation. However, the time that is used to describe evolution in quantum theory is an external classical time, and is in turn expected to be an emergent feature — a relic of an underlying theory of quantum gravity. In this essay we borrow ideas from trace dynamics to show that classical time is a thermodynamic approximation to an operator time in quantum gravitational physics. This prediction will be put to test by ongoing laboratory experiments attempting to construct superposed states of macroscopic objects.
Quantum nonlocal correlations and the acausal, spooky action at a distance suggest a discord between quantum theory and special relativity. We propose a resolution for this discord by first observing that there is a problem of time in quantum theory. There should exist a reformulation of quantum theory which does not refer to classical time. Such a reformulation is obtained by suggesting that spacetime is fundamentally noncommutative. Quantum theory without classical time is the equilibrium statistical thermodynamics of the underlying noncommutative relativity. Stochastic fluctuations about equilibrium give rise to the classical limit and ordinary spacetime geometry. However, measurement on an entangled state can be correctly described only in the underlying noncommutative spacetime, where there is no causality violation, nor a spooky action at a distance.
A picture of dynamical collapse of the wave function which is relativistic and time symmetric is presented. The part of the model which exhibits these features is the set of collapse outcomes. These play the role of matter distributed in space and time. It is argued that the dynamically collapsing quantum state, which is both foliation dependent and follows a time-asymmetric dynamics, is not fundamental: it represents a state of information about the past matter distribution for the purpose of estimating the future matter distribution. It is also argued from the point of view of collapse models that both special and general relativistic considerations point towards a discrete spacetime structure and that gravity may not need to be quantised to give a theory that is consistent with quantum matter.