On the Quantum Theory of Non-Local Fields

Гарий Владимирович Ефимов

Neil J. Cornish

Richard Cant

Laura Ruetsche

After a skeptical review of the conventional wisdom concerning locality in ordinary, non-relativistic quantum mechanics, I offer a minimally technical account of locality in Algebraic Quantum Field Theory (AQFT). I argue that whereas the observables of AQFT are as local as one likes, the theory’s states, even more than the states of ordinary quantum mechanics, exhibit a non-locality (better, a holism due to entanglement. I suggest that attempts to ramify entanglement into spooky remote steering, or invoke it to impugn the locality/independence of AQFT algebras, rely on assumptions in tension with the axioms of AQFT, including assumptions about miraculous measurement collapse.

S. A. Gardiner, Holger Gies A, Joerg Jaeckel +1 more

Integrating out virtual quantum fluctuations in an originally local quantum field theory results in an effective theory which is non-local. In this Letter we argue that tunneling of the 3rd kind - where particles traverse a barrier by splitting into a pair of virtual particles which recombine only after a finite distance - provides a direct test of this non-locality. We sketch a quantum-optical setup to test this effect, and investigate observable effects in a simple toy model.

H. Muirhead