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arXiv:2010.05734 · Quantum

The arrow of time in operational formulations of quantum theory

Andrea Di Biagio, Pietro Donà, Carlo Rovelli C

Published Aug 9, 2021• 44 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The operational formulations of quantum theory are drastically time oriented. However, to the best of our knowledge, microscopic physics is time-symmetric. We address this tension by showing that the asymmetry of the operational formulations does not reflect a fundamental time-orientation of physics. Instead, it stems from built-in assumptions about the users of the theory. In particular, these formalisms are designed for predicting the future based on information about the past, and the main mathematical objects contain implicit assumption about the past, but not about the future. The main asymmetry in quantum theory is the difference between knowns and unknowns.

DOI
10.22331/q-2021-08-09-520

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The operational formulations of quantum theory are drastically time oriented. However, to the best of our knowledge, microscopic physics is time-symmetric. We address this tension by showing that the asymmetry of the operational formulations does not reflect a fundamental time-orientation of physics. Instead, it stems from built-in assumptions about the users of the theory. In particular, these formalisms are designed for predicting the future based on information about the past, and the main mathematical objects contain implicit assumption about the past, but not about the future. The main asymmetry in quantum theory is the difference between knowns and unknowns.
More them any other topic in the foundations of physics, the problem of the arrow (or arrows!) of time seems to be characterized by a unique ‘slipperiness’: it is not only difficult to find answers to the questions once posed, but difficult to find meaningful questions to ask in the first place. Perhaps this is because an asymmetry with respect to the sense of time is built into us at an even deeper level than other ‘synthetic a priori’ conceptions about the world such as the continued existence of unknown objects. However that may be, in this situation, rather than trying to pose general questions which may turn out in the end to be ill-defined, there may be something to be said for trying to formulate much less speculative, indeed perhaps in retrospect trivial questions to which at least we have a hope of finding a definite answer. This is what I shall do in this essay: to be specific, I shall ask whether a test which is currently being designed concerning the validity of a certain ‘common-sense’ view of the macroscopic world (‘macrorealism’) would be affected if we were to relax our common-sense assumptions about the direction of causality in time. Let me start with a very brief review of established ideas concerning the formal (a)symmetry of the quantum theory with respect to the direction of time. The classic works on this subject are the paper of Aharonov et al. (‘ABL’) and the book by Belinfante. In these discussions the notion of ‘measurement’ is taken as primitive and undefined.
A basic time asymmetry is said to exist in the conventional quantum theory of measurement because the initial state, determined by the initial measurement, suffers a reduction of the wave packet when a succeeding measurement is made. It is shown, completely within the conventional framework, that the sense of this time asymmetry can be reversed and a retroductive formalism introduced which is based upon the fact that only the final state is known. Moreover, if both the initial and final states of a set of measurements are fixed, a completely time symmetric formalism can be constructed for the time interval between these given states. The selection of the predictive scheme can be made with the help of macroscopic considerations and consequently it appears that the basic time asymmetry is not a consequence of conventional quantum physics including measurement.
Abstract The fundamental dynamics of quantum particles is neutral with respect to the arrow of time. And yet, our experiments are not: we observe quantum systems evolving from the past to the future, but not the other way round. A fundamental question is whether it is possible, at least in principle, to conceive a broader set of operations that probe quantum processes in the backward direction, from the future to the past, or more generally, in a combination of the forward and backward directions. Here we introduce a mathematical framework for operations that are not constrained to a definite time direction. More generally, we introduce a set of multipartite operations that include indefinite time direction as well as indefinite causal order, providing a framework for potential extensions of quantum theory.
The laws of classical mechanics and quantum theory do not distinguish between the past and the future. But a lot of phenomena tell us that the "arrow of time" points only in one direction. For example, in biology we discover evolutionary processes leading to diversification and increasing complexity; it is a typical feature of such evolutionary processes that "forward" in time is possible but "backward" in time is impossible. At what level can phenomena like these be described? There is another problem in connection with time: within usual quantum theory, space-coordinates and time are not symmetrical to each other, which is in contrast to the basic results of special theory of relativity. In usual quantum theory coordinates are operators and play the role of statistical quantities; time however does not behave statistically and remains a simple parameter when we go from classical to quantum mechanics. For this reason there is no uncertainty relation for the time and energy within usual quantum theory which would agree in its physical content with that for the coordinates and momenta. The purpose of this paper is to show, on the basis of new aspects, that both one-sidedness of time and its uncertainty are charateristics at the fundamental level of quantum theory. We have extended usual quantum theory on the basis of space-time arguments. In this connection a time-operator appeared and there is in general temporal asymmetry at the microscopic level. The picture might be important in the description of phenomena with an "arrow of time", i.e., processes which belong to the physics of becoming. Furthermore, we have derived an uncertainty relation for the energy and time which agrees in its physical content with the uncertainty relation for the momentum and the coordinate; this relation is different from that of usual quantum theory. Within the frame of this physical picture all the concepts (diversity, natural selection, mutation), which are presently used in connection with the evolution of biological systems, are already established at the quantum mechanical level and, therefore, our theoretical picture might also be the foundation for the explanation of the phenomena at the biological (macro-molecular) level.
The standard operational probabilistic framework (within which we can formulate Operational Quantum Theory) is time asymmetric. This is clear because the conditions on allowed operations are time asymmetric. It is odd, though, because Schoedinger's equation is time symmetric and probability theory does not care about time direction. In this work we provide a time symmetric framework for operational theories in general and for Quantum Theory in particular. The clearest expression of the time asymmetry of standard Operational Quantum Theory is that the deterministic effect is unique - meaning there is only one way to ignore the future - while deterministic (i.e normalised) states are not unique. In this paper, this time asymmetry is traced back to a time asymmetric understanding of the most basic elements of an operational theory - namely the operations (or boxes) out of which circuits are built. We modify this allowing operations to have classical incomes as well as classical outcomes on these operations. We establish a time symmetric operational framework for circuits built out of operations. In particular, we demand that the probability associated with a circuit is the same whether we calculate it forwards in time or backwards in time. We do this by imposing various double properties. These are properties wherein a forward in time and a backward in time version of the same property are required. In this paper we provide a new causality condition which we call double causality.
Microscopic quantum laws are time-symmetric: nothing in the Schrödinger equation or its relativistic extensions distinguishes future from past. Yet measurements produce irreversible records, an apparently one-way causal flow, and the familiar notion that causes precede effects. Within the Quantum Time-Symmetric Interpretation (QTSI), this asymmetry is not fundamental but emergent. Isolated quantum systems are described by a two-component temporal state containing forward- and backward-propagating amplitudes. Their mixing, governed by a parameter Δ(ϕ)Δ(ϕ)Δ(ϕ), defines a retrocausal coherence time τRC(ϕ)τ_{RC}(ϕ)τRC​(ϕ) beyond which advanced components are suppressed. As the system couples to amplifying environments characterized by a macroscopic parameter ϕϕϕ, Δ(ϕ)Δ(ϕ)Δ(ϕ) decreases and the backward component is dynamically eliminated, giving rise to classical causality and effective collapse. QTSI aligns naturally with time-symmetric approaches from Wheeler--Feynman, Aharonov, and Price, agrees with all weak-measurement and quantum eraser results in their operational regimes, and predicts specific signatures in temporal echoes and chaotic cavities. Detailed formal and experimental developments appear in the Supplementary Addenda.