Abstract We investigate the emergence of an operational temporal limit for coherent recombination in globally unitary quantum dynamics. Using numerical interferometric simulations, we introduce an operational notion of temporal compatibility defined through the decay of interferometric visibility, without invoking wavefunction collapse, classical noise, or external dissipation. Through systematic numerical simulations of a minimal unitary model with a finite internal sector, explicitly formulated in interferometric terms, we show that temporal compatibility exhibits qualitatively distinct dynamical regimes. In systems with low spectral density, coherence losses are transient and compatibility remains recoverable through spontaneous revivals. By contrast, when temporal incompatibility is distributed across an internal sector with sufficiently dense spectral structure, the visibility decays without relevant revivals, and a well-defined compatibility timescale, Δτcompat, becomes operationally accessible. We demonstrate that this emergent timescale is statistically robust, invariant under changes in microscopic clock dynamics, and controlled by collective spectral properties rather than by subsystem-specific parameters. In the post-compatibility regime, Δτcompat obeys a simple scaling law governed by an effective collective parameter combining coupling strength and spectral dispersion. These results provide a concrete mechanism for the emergence of operational irreversibility within globally unitary systems and establish temporal compatibility as a meaningful dynamical notion. More broadly, they support interpretations in which effective temporal horizons arise from internal dynamical structure rather than from fundamental state reduction or observer-dependent processes.
Abstract We investigate the emergence of an operational temporal limit for coherent recombination in globally unitary quantum dynamics. Using numerical interferometric simulations, we introduce an operational notion of temporal compatibility defined through the decay of interferometric visibility, without invoking wavefunction collapse, classical noise, or external dissipation. Through systematic numerical simulations of a minimal unitary model with a finite internal sector, explicitly formulated in interferometric terms, we show that temporal compatibility exhibits qualitatively distinct dynamical regimes. In systems with low spectral density, coherence losses are transient and compatibility remains recoverable through spontaneous revivals. By contrast, when temporal incompatibility is distributed across an internal sector with sufficiently dense spectral structure, the visibility decays without relevant revivals, and a well-defined compatibility timescale, Δτcompat, becomes operationally accessible. We demonstrate that this emergent timescale is statistically robust, invariant under changes in microscopic clock dynamics, and controlled by collective spectral properties rather than by subsystem-specific parameters. In the post-compatibility regime, Δτcompat obeys a simple scaling law governed by an effective collective parameter combining coupling strength and spectral dispersion. These results provide a concrete mechanism for the emergence of operational irreversibility within globally unitary systems and establish temporal compatibility as a meaningful dynamical notion. More broadly, they support interpretations in which effective temporal horizons arise from internal dynamical structure rather than from fundamental state reduction or observer-dependent processes.
AbstractThis work develops a single temporal framework across scales, from quantum compatibility to galactic dynamics. Within the Temporal Interpretation (TI) of quantum mechanics, proper time is taken as physically primary and branch coexistence is replaced by temporal compatibility. A minimal unitary model with dense internal spectra is used to define an operational compatibility threshold, Δτ_compat, marking the onset of effectively inaccessible coherent recombination. The analysis is then extended to the classical domain, where classical reality is reformulated as a regime of successful temporal synchronisation, horizons as losses of recoverable compatibility, and geometry as an emergent structure arising from temporal relations and holonomy. At the collective level, the relevant transition is no longer controlled only by pairwise compatibility, but by a crossing scale, Δτ_cross, together with bounded global frustration and multi-regime exponent compression from local to mesoscopic and macroscopic projection. This prepares a forward macroscopic description in which collective temporal desynchronisation generates an effective geometric contribution to orbital motion without introducing dark matter as an additional material component. Applying this framework to baryonic data from the SPARC sample under a strictly forward methodology, with no inverse reconstruction and no per-galaxy tuning, we identify an effective galactic temporal scale Δτ_gal ≈ (5 ± 1) × 10^13 s, which organises the dynamics of 171 valid galaxies in the working sample. The result suggests that temporal compatibility is not only a conceptual reinterpretation of quantum measurement, but a physically operative principle whose macroscopic projection may structure the weak-acceleration regime of galaxies. This record contains the manuscript and a supplementary ZIP archive (TI scripts.zip) with the Python scripts used in the numerical and computational workflow discussed in the article, including local compatibility tests, multi-branch frustration analysis, mesoscopic aggregation, macroscopic projection, and the forward galactic sweep.
Abstract This article presents a revised and conceptually refined formulation of a previously proposed Temporal Interpretation of quantum measurement, explicitly addressing the physical nature of wavefunction collapse. While the original proposal emphasised relativistic aspects of momentum superpositions, the present work clarifies the interpretation within the standard formalism of quantum mechanics, without introducing new dynamics or experimental predictions. Unitary evolution is read as a process of differentiated phase accumulation between branches of a quantum state. In relativistic contexts, phase differentials can be structurally related to effective proper-time differentials, allowing the introduction of a notion of temporal compatibility that provides a physically grounded account of decoherence. When such differentials exceed a characteristic scale, interference between branches becomes operationally inaccessible, while global unitarity is preserved. The observer is treated as a physical system endowed with an irreversible proper time associated with macroscopic, entropic dynamics. Within this framework, collapse is explained as an emergent physical phenomenon arising from the irreversibility of the observer’s proper time, which prevents the reconstruction of phase coherence after an interaction. Collapse is therefore neither a fundamental dynamical mechanism nor an objective event in space-time, but a necessary consequence of temporal irreversibility in physical observers. This formulation sharpens the distinction between decoherence and collapse, preserves full consistency with the Born rule, and positions the Temporal Interpretation as a competing interpretative framework that provides a concrete physical explanation for the quantum–classical transition, improving and clarifying the original proposal. This version clarifies the operational status of the interaction time, refines Sections 5.3 and 5.4, and standardises references and editorial structure. No changes to the formalism or conclusions.
This work investigates the biophysical implications of a fundamental limit already established in the literature at the interface between quantum mechanics and relativity, namely, the decoherence induced by time dilation in composite systems, formally derived by Pikovski et al. This effect demonstrates that, even in the absence of an external environment, differences in proper time couple the internal and external degrees of freedom of quantum systems, leading to a loss of interferometric coherence as a direct consequence of the relativistic structure of spacetime. The present study does not introduce modifications to this formalism nor proposes new decoherence mechanisms; it starts explicitly from these results as a background physical constraint. Our objective is distinct: to analyze complex molecular systems operating persistently in non-equilibrium regimes — notably biological systems — in light of this universal limit. We propose that biochemical functionality should not be described solely by structural or energetic criteria, as in the classical spatial affinity paradigm (“lock-and-key”), but also by the system's ability to maintain temporal compatibility between its internal modes during finite operational intervals. We term this operational regime the Simultaneity Window, characterizing a dynamic condition of effective coherence sustained by a continuous flow of free energy. In this framework, processes involving the loss of functional viability can be modeled as the transition of the molecular system to the intrinsic decoherence regime predicted by relativistic-quantum theory, occurring when the variance of internal energy (ΔE) exceeds the range compatible with the maintenance of this operational coherence. The notion introduced here does not alter the underlying physical mechanism but identifies a domain in which biochemical systems explore — and need to circumvent — such a limitation. Based on this operational interpretation, we introduce the concept of Chrono-Inhibitors: agents capable of modifying the internal spectral distribution of a target biological system, shifting it in a controlled manner into the effective decoherence regime without requiring direct structural modification. We operationally define a \emph{chrono-inhibitor} as any external perturbation capable of altering the internal spectral variance ΔE without directly modifying the system's average structure.
The possibility of distinct physical systems remaining dynamically compatible over time is often implicitly assumed in various areas of physics, from interferometric descriptions to clock comparisons and the analysis of composite systems. In this work, we show that such continuous compatibility is not a generic property but encounters a structural limitation that stems directly from the variational formulation of dynamics. Starting from only minimal hypotheses—the existence of an accumulative action, monotonic proper parametrizations, and operational dependence on action differences via factors eiS/ℏ—we demonstrate that dynamically independent systems cannot maintain functional coincidence of their actions over open intervals, except under fine-tuning. Consequently, moments of compatibility form a necessarily discrete set, and any coherent coupling is effective only within a time scale determined by the difference between the rates of action accumulation. The result does not depend on a specific microscopic model, nor on dissipative, statistical, or environmental mechanisms, being consistent with classical mechanics, relativity, and quantum field theory. It is shown, in particular, that effects such as the loss of interferometric visibility associated with time dilation can be understood as physical realizations of a more general constraint: the structural incompatibility between evolutions parameterized by distinct actions. Thus, the so-called ``compatibility window'' does not constitute a new dynamic principle, but an inevitable consequence of the variational architecture common to established physical theories.
Abstract Understanding thermalization and irreversibility in open quantum systems requires char-acterizing the competition between coherent unitary dynamics and dissipative environmen-tal interactions. In this work, we present a systematic numerical study of thermalization dynamics in a two-qubit open quantum system governed by a completely positive and trace-preserving Lindblad master equation. The coherent evolution rate is controlled by a real scaling parameter α multiplying the Hamiltonian commutator, while decoherence is indepen-dently controlled by a dephasing rate γ . Although such a scaling of coherent dynamics can be absorbed into a rescaling of time in isolated systems, it becomes physically meaningful in open systems where decoherence introduces an absolute timescale. We investigate how the relative strength of coherent evolution and decoherence influences observable dynamics, purity decay, entropy production, and thermalization times. Using robust local and two-site observables, we show that varying α at fixed γ produces distinct transient trajectories, even though all evolutions converge to the same steady state. We further define an operational thermalization time τ ( γ, α ) based on a purity threshold and map the resulting thermalization-time surface across a broad parameter range. Increasing α generally accelerates oscillatory dynamics and modifies the approach to equilibrium, leading to measurable shifts in thermalization times without altering asymptotic states. These findings provide a clear and physically consistent characterization of how Hamil-tonian strength and decoherence rate jointly determine thermalization behavior in open quantum systems. The framework offers a practical parameterization for numerical mod-eling and experimental studies of coherent–dissipative competition in quantum information processing, quantum control, and open-system dynamics.
The fundamental equations of quantum mechanics are time-symmetric, yet measurements generate irreversible records and a one-way causal structure at macroscopic scales. The Quantum Time-Symmetric Interpretation (QTSI) explains this contrast as emergent rather than fundamental. Isolated quantum systems are described by a two-component temporal bispinor containing both forwardand backward-evolving amplitudes, coupled through a pseudo-Hermitian SU(1,1) Hamiltonian. Their coupling is governed by a mixing parameter Δ that depends on a macroscopic amplification fraction φ = N m /N t , where N t is the total number of relevant microscopic events and N m is the number that trigger irreversible macroscopic records. The associated retrocausal coherence time τ_RC = ħ/|Δ(φ)| is the characteristic timescale on which ψ+ and ψ− mix. As φ increases, τ_RC grows, temporal interference requires progressively longer times to form, and in the limit φ → 1 it becomes physically inaccessible. Δ vanishes, the two temporal sectors decouple dynamically, time symmetry is broken, and the system enters the irreversible classical regime. Standard quantum mechanics is recovered in this limit. The Born rule emerges naturally as ψ− → 0, since |ψ+ + ψ−|² reduces to |ψ+|² without any additional postulate. QTSI is a locally causal, ontologically realist, no-signaling interpretation: Bell correlations arise from time-symmetric global boundary conditions rather than nonlocal influences. Observable deviations from standard quantum mechanics are predicted in weakly monitored interferometric regimes, including the visibility formula V(φ) = V₀[1−exp(−T_av(1−φ)Δ₀/ħ)] — which decreases with monitoring fraction φ and reduces to V ≈ V₀(1−φ) for T_avΔ₀/ħ ≫ 1 — and a new three-slit signature in which the Fourier spectrum of the intensity pattern contains phase-coherent sum-phase peaks absent in standard quantum mechanics, whose Fourier amplitude scales as (1−φ) with the monitoring fraction.