On the Violation of Micro-Causality in Classical Electron Theory

Werner Karl Heisenberg

Tom Purves, Anthony Short

Within quantum theory, we can create superpositions of different causal orders of events, and observe interference between them. This raises the question of whether quantum theory can produce results that would be impossible to replicate with any classical causal model, thereby violating a causal inequality. This would be a temporal analog of Bell inequality violation, which proves that no local hidden variable model can replicate quantum results. However, unlike the case of nonlocality, we show that quantum experiments can be simulated by a classical causal model, and therefore cannot violate a causal inequality.

Gottfried Möllenstedt

GÜNTER NIMTZ

Photonic tunneling permits superluminal signal transmission. The principle of causality is not violated but the time duration between cause and effect can be shortened compared with an interaction exchange with velocity of light. This outstanding property can be applied to speed-up photonic signal modulation and transmission as well as to improve micro-electronic devices. Superluminal photonic signal transmission have been presented at microwave and infrared frequencies already. Presumably superluminal photonic and electronic devices can become reality having in mind the experimental evidence of the universal tunneling time of photons and of electrons.

V.Ya. Fainberg

Wladimir Guglinski

Feynman’s Quantum Electrodynamics was developed by considering the reversion in time, which means that there is a violation in the causality: something in the future yields a happening in the past. Here we show that the paradox exists when one tries to understand the electron’s motion through a classical trajectory. However, by considering that the electron actually moves through a helical trajectory, the success of Feynman’s theory can be explained without considering the reversion in time.