Quantum processes and the flow of time

Xiao-Ming Lu, Xiaoguang Wang, C. P. Sun

We establish an information-theoretic approach for quantitatively characterizing the non-Markovianity of open quantum processes. Here, the quantum Fisher information (QFI) flow provides a measure to statistically distinguish Markovian and non-Markovian processes. A basic relation between the QFI flow and non-Markovianity is unveiled for quantum dynamics of open systems. For a class of time-local master equations, the exactly analytic solution shows that for each fixed time the QFI flow is decomposed into additive subflows according to different dissipative channels.

Henry Pierce Stapp

Klaus Mainzer

Xinkuang Liu

Based on the Taiji Evolution Cosmology [1], this paper proposes a proposition about the nature of time: time is not an independently flowing background, but the "rate of processes" — the time flow of a universe equals the combined rhythm of all physical processes within it — and the rates of all processes are determined by the laws of quantum mechanics. This establishes a mechanism chain: weave (the quantum-level structure that determines the laws of physics) → quantum spectrum (energy levels, transition frequencies, entanglement structure) → the rates of all quantum processes → the time flow of that universe. Accordingly: (1) time rate is a question at the quantum-mechanical level, not an independent background property; (2) differences in time flow between universes (e.g., the classical record "a moment in the other world, a hundred years in the human world") originate from differences in quantum spectra caused by differences in weave; (3) the time dilation of general relativity and the weave-induced time difference are of the same origin — both are rate differences caused by differences in quantum structure (spacetime = entangled network, ENUM[5]); (4) time rate is adjustable (when local weave is controllable), but does not violate the one-way direction of time (Theorem 1[2]) — what is adjustable is the rate, what is irreversible is the direction.

I. G. Bassi, Markus Samaila, C E Okechukwu

Important information about stationary flows (B I ) I Î I is contained in moments of the corresponding process. We consider the case where we have an order invariance of the moments of the increments, in the sense that such moments do not change if we shift the increments against each other, as long as we do not change the relative position of the intervals. We then show that for large classes of quantum processes one can make precise statements about the time behaviour of their moments. Keywords: Von Neumann algebras, Stationary flows and quantum processes, order invariant, Trace and moments.