Quantum Counterfactuals and Locality

Stapp’s counterfactual argument for quantum nonlocality based upon a Hardy entangled state is shown to be flawed. While he has correctly analyzed a particular framework using the method of consistent histories, there are alternative frameworks which do not support his argument. The framework dependence of quantum counterfactual arguments, with analogs in classical counterfactuals, vitiates the claim that nonlocal (superluminal) influences exist in the quantum world. Instead it shows that counterfactual arguments are of limited use for analyzing these questions.     

Locality and Bell's Theorem

It is shown that the violation of Bell's inequality allowed by quantum mechanics and the related Bell's theorem without inequalities is accounted for by local commutations of operators representing single-particle observables. It is argued that the idea of nonlocal influencing of one particle on another when they are in spacelike separated regions clearly has neither empirical nor theoretical support.     

Beyond Scaling and Locality in Turbulence

An analytic perturbation theory is suggested in order to find finite-size corrections to the scaling power laws. In the frame of this theory it is shown that the first order finite-size correction to the scaling power laws has following form , where η is a finite-size scale (in particular for turbulence, it can be the Kolmogorov dissipation scale). Using data of laboratory experiments and numerical simulations it is shown shown that a degenerate case with α ₀=0 can describe turbulence statistics in the near-dissipation range r > η, where the ordinary (power-law) scaling does not apply. For moderate Reynolds numbers the degenerate scaling range covers almost the entire range of scales of velocity structure functions (the log-corrections apply to finite Reynolds number). Interplay between local and non-local regimes has been considered as a possible hydrodynamic mechanism providing the basis for the degenerate scaling of structure functions and extended self-similarity. These results have been also expanded on passive scalar mixing in turbulence. Overlapping phenomenon between local and non-local regimes and a relation between position of maximum of the generalized energy input rate and the actual crossover scale between these regimes are briefly discussed. PACS: 47.27.-i, 47.27.Gs.     

Quantum Locality

It is argued that while quantum mechanics contains nonlocal or entangled states, the instantaneous or nonlocal influences sometimes thought to be present due to violations of Bell inequalities in fact arise from mistaken attempts to apply classical concepts and introduce probabilities in a manner inconsistent with the Hilbert space structure of standard quantum mechanics. Instead, Einstein locality is a valid quantum principle: objective properties of individual quantum systems do not change when something is done to another noninteracting system. There is no reason to suspect any conflict between quantum theory and special relativity.     

Charges and Symmetries in Quantum Theories without Locality

We review some rigorous results (and include some new ones) on charges, symmetry breaking and related concepts in quantum theories without locality (micro-causality), relevant examples of which are quantum lattice systems, (nonrelativistic) many-body and lattice gauge theories. In particular, Goldstone's theorem and its generalizations (involving long-range forces) and Swieca's theorem on the connection between the absence of charged states and the existence of a mass gap are discussed.     

Locality,charges and quark confinement

General features of the Yang-Mills color theory suggested by Fritzsch, Gell-Mann and Leutwyler are discussed. It is shown that as a consequence of locality every observable is a color singlet and that the failure of the cluster property and consequently a q-$\text{q}$ potential not decreasing at infinity are possible, consistently with locality, just because of the non abelian gauge character. A generalized cluster property is proved for Yang-Mills local field theories.     

Modeling Transverse Relative Locality

We investigate some aspects of relativistic classical theories with “relative locality”, in which pairs of events established to be coincident by nearby observers may be described as non-coincident by distant observers. While previous studies focused mainly on the case of longitudinal relative locality, where the effect occurs along the direction connecting the distant observer to the events, we here focus on transverse relative locality, in which instead the effect is found in a direction orthogonal to the one connecting the distant observer to the events. Our findings suggest that, at least for theories of free particles, transverse relative locality is as significant as longitudinal relative locality both conceptually and quantitatively. And we observe that “dual gravity lensing” can be viewed as one of two components of transverse relative locality. We also speculate about a type of spacetime noncommutativity for which transverse relative locality could be particularly significant.     

Quantum mechanics versus realism

Quantum theory accepts the point-like indivisible (classical) character of a particle as a mere product of a measuring process, or what has become known as a collapse. Following the notion of empty waves, which accepts the particle as a real existent entity without regard to the measurement process, we propose an experiment that may shed some light on the reality of the particle and the consequences of that reality.     

Locality and topology in the molecular Aharonov-Bohm effect

It is shown that the molecular Aharonov-Bohm effect is neither nonlocal nor topological in the sense of the standard magnetic Aharonov-Bohm effect. It is further argued that there is a close relationship between the molecular Aharonov-Bohm effect and the Aharonov-Casher effect for an electrically neutral spin -1 / 2 particle encircling a line of charge.     

Observers and Locality in Everett Quantum Field Theory

A model for measurement in collapse-free nonrelativistic fermionic quantum field theory is presented. In addition to local propagation and effectively-local interactions, the model incorporates explicit representations of localized observers, thus extending an earlier model of entanglement generation in Everett quantum field theory (Rubin in Found. Phys. 32:1495–1523, 2002). Transformations of the field operators from the Heisenberg picture to the Deutsch-Hayden picture, involving fictitious auxiliary fields, establish the locality of the model. The model is applied to manifestly-local calculations of the results of measurements, using a type of sudden approximation and in the limit of massive systems in narrow-wavepacket states. Detection of the presence of a spin-1/2 system in a given spin state by a freely-moving two-state observer illustrates the features of the model and the nonperturbative computational methodology. With the help of perturbation theory the model is applied to a calculation of the quintessential “nonlocal” quantum phenomenon, spin correlations in the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm experiment.     

Locality in GNS Representations of Deformation Quantization

In the framework of deformation quantization we apply the formal GNS construction to find representations of the deformed algebras in pre-Hilbert spaces over ³[[u]] and establish the notion of local operators in these pre-Hilbert spaces. The commutant within the local operators is used to distinguish "thermal" from "pure" representations. The computation of the local commutant is xemplified in various situations leading to the physically reasonable distinction between thermal representations and pure ones. Moreover, an analogue of von Neumann's double commutant theorem is proved in the particular situation of a GNS representation with respect to a KMS functional and for the Schrödinger representation on cotangent bundles. Finally we prove a formal version of the Tomita-Takesaki theorem.     

Locality Hypothesis and the Speed of Light

The locality hypothesis is generally considered necessary for the study of the kinematics of non-inertial systems in special relativity. In this paper we discuss this hypothesis, showing the necessity of an improvement, in order to get a more clear understanding of the various concepts involved, like coordinate velocity and standard velocity of light. Concrete examples are shown, where these concepts are discussed.     

New inequalities from local realism

The probabilistic formulation of local realism is shown to imply the existence of physically meaningful limits for arbitrary linear combinations of joint probabilities. The set of the so generated inequalities (setA) is wider than the previously known set of inequalities for linear combinations of correlation functions (setB). One particular inequality of the setA is shown to be violated by the probabilities of the Garg-Mermin model. The same model satisfies instead all the inequalities of the setB. As a consequence, the Garg-Mermin model is nonlocal and the setA provides physical restrictions not contained in the setB. 1. In the adopted formalism it is implicitly assumed that physical properties of the type are not created in the act of measurement. IfB(b) is measured on the systems, the setT is split into two parts,T(b _±), corresponding to the resultsB(b) = ±1, respectively. AlsoS is split intoS(b _±) from the existing correlation between and systems. If it is possible to predict that a measurement ofA(a) on the's of, say,S(b ₊) will give the results ±1 with respective probabilitiesP _±, then, on the basis of the probabilistic criterion of reality, we can attribute a physical property ₊ toS(b ₊) such that p(a ₊, ₊) is the probability ofA(a) = +1 inS(b ₊), p(a _–, ₊) is the probability ofA(a) = –1 inS(b ₊).It is natural to assume that ₊ belongs toS(b ₊) also ifA(a) isnot measured. In so doing, we exclude that future measurements create, with a retroaction in time, the physical properties of the statistical ensembles on which these measurements are performed.     

Local realism of macroscopic correlations

We identify conditions under which correlations resulting from quantum measurements performed on macroscopic systems (systems composed of a number of particles of the order of the Avogadro number) can be described by local realism. We argue that the emergence of local realism at the macroscopic level is caused by an interplay between the monogamous nature of quantum correlations and the fact that macroscopic measurements do not reveal properties of individual particles.     

Locality in quantum and Markov dynamics on lattices and networks

We consider gapped systems governed by either quantum or Markov dynamics, with the low-lying states below the gap being approximately degenerate. For a broad class of dynamics, we prove that ground or stationary state correlation functions can be written as a piece decaying exponentially in space plus a term set by matrix elements between the low-lying states. The key to the proof is a local approximation to the negative energy, or annihilation, part of an operator in a gapped system. Applications to numerical simulation of quantum systems and to networks are discussed.     

Locality and currents for the dual string

We wish to describe the coupling of a local current to the dual string as the amplitude for the string to collapse to a point. At the quantum level we note that states which are localized in the transverse directions are forced by the gauge constraints to have longitudinal extension. The best we can do in the conventional model is, therefore, to construct off-shell states which have zero helicity (but no unique spin). We calculate the propagator for such states and compare it with the model of Schwarz. In their respective critical dimensions (26 for the string and 16 for the off-shell model of Schwarz) the two results become identical. We also calculate the Green functions for the coupling of one of our off-shell states to any number of on-shell particles by means of the functional formalism. Our results have a close connection with the previous models of Schwarz and Wu and of Corrigan and Fairlie.     

A Characterisation of Locality in Momentum Space

It is proved that a Poincaré invariant Wightman function which fulfils the spectral property and can be defined at sharp times, is local if and only if the integration over both the energy variables of a commutator in momentum space is a polynomial in the momentum conjugated to the spacial difference variable of the commutator with distributional coefficients depending on the remaining energy and momentum variables. Using this characterisation of locality in momentum space, the locality of a sequence of Wightman functions with nontrivial scattering behavior (associated to some quantum field in indefinite metric) can be proved by explicit calculations. We compare the above characterisation of locality with the classical integral representation method of Jost, Lehmann and Dyson.     

Objectivity vs. Locality in Quantum Physics

An Objectivity Principle (O) and a Locality Principle (L) are considered with respect to two simple, but fundamental Gedanken experiments, namely a “Welcher-Weg” Gedanken experiment and an Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) Gedanken experiment. It is shown that, if both principles (O) and (L) are assumed to be valid, a contradiction, in the EPR case Bell’s inequality, can be derived implying that at least one of the two principles (O) and (L) has to be denied. It is shown that, if (O) is denied, (L) is preserved in the EPR-Gedanken experiment. For a more adequate discussion, in particular of (L), the two experiments are described in Minkowskian space-time of special relativity.