Semiclassical Expectation Values for Relativistic Particles with Spin 1/2

Armin Wachter

Hollis Williams

Semiclassical gravity, in which a classical spacetime is sourced by the quantum expectation value of the stress-energy tensor, is a standard framework for describing the gravitational interaction of quantum matter. In the nonrelativistic limit this approach leads to the Schrödinger-Newton equation, which is often assumed to be consistent at least in the weak-field regime. In this work, we reexamine this assumption for spatial quantum superpositions of massive particles. We show that, when the quantum state is properly normalized, no modification of the Newtonian gravitational potential arises at leading order. However, at first post-Newtonian order the semiclassical coupling generically produces state-dependent contributions involving the mass density and the mass current of the superposition. These terms have a parametric scaling which is different from that of the corresponding relativistic corrections and which does not have Planck mass suppression. Our results therefore impose a strong post-Newtonian consistency constraint on deterministic semiclassical gravity, indicating that sourcing the metric solely by expectation values is insufficient to recover a consistent relativistic weak-field expansion.

Shahen Hacyan

Philip Caesar Flores, Eric A. Galapon

A relativistic version of the Aharonov-Bohm time-of-arrival operator for spin-0 particles was constructed by Razavi [Il Nuovo Cimento B 63, 271 (1969)]. We study the operator in detail by taking its rigged Hilbert space extension. It is shown that the rigged Hilbert space extension of the operator provides more insights into the time-of-arrival problem that goes beyond Razavi's original results. This allows us to use time-of-arrival eigenfunctions that exhibit unitary arrival to construct time-of-arrival distributions. The expectation value is also calculated and shown that particles can arrive earlier or later than expected classically. Last, the constructed time-of-arrival distribution and expectation value are shown to be consistent with special relativity.

Shahpoor Moradi

In this Letter we show that in relativistic regime maximally entangled state of two spin-1/2 particles not only gives maximal violation of the Bell-CHSH inequality but also gives the largest violation attainable for any pairs of four spin observables that are noncommuting for both systems. Also we extend our results to three spin-1/2 particles. We obtain the largest eigenvalue of Bell operator and show that this value is equal to expectation value of Bell operator on GHZ state.

Jagannath Thakur