6
IRUS Total
Downloads
  Altmetric

An intrinsic causality principle in histories-based quantum theory: a proposal

File Description SizeFormat 
Dowker_2023_J._Phys._A__Math._Theor._56_485304.pdfPublished version439.98 kBAdobe PDFView/Open
Title: An intrinsic causality principle in histories-based quantum theory: a proposal
Authors: Dowker, F
Sorkin, RD
Item Type: Journal Article
Abstract: Relativistic causality (RC) is the principle that no cause can act outside its future light cone, but any attempt to formulate this principle more precisely will depend on the foundational framework that one adopts for quantum theory. Adopting a histories-based (or 'path integral') framework, we relate RC to a condition we term 'Persistence of Zero' (PoZ), according to which an event E of measure zero remains forbidden if one forms its conjunction with any other event associated to a spacetime region that is later than or spacelike to that of E. We also relate PoZ to the Bell inequalities by showing that, in combination with a second, more technical condition it leads to the quantal counterpart of Fine's patching theorem in much the same way as Bell's condition of local causality leads to Fine's original theorem. We then argue that RC per se has very little to say on the matter of which correlations can occur in nature and which cannot. From the point of view we arrive at, histories-based quantum theories are nonlocal in spacetime, and fully in compliance with RC.
Issue Date: 1-Dec-2023
Date of Acceptance: 13-Oct-2023
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/113059
DOI: 10.1088/1751-8121/ad0347
ISSN: 1751-8113
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Journal / Book Title: Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical
Volume: 56
Issue: 48
Copyright Statement: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Publication Status: Published
Article Number: 485304
Online Publication Date: 2023-11-10
Appears in Collections:Physics
Theoretical Physics



This item is licensed under a Creative Commons License Creative Commons