English

Can a particle moves zigzag in time?

Quantum Physics 2024-03-06 v3 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

Amplitudes of quantum transitions containing time zigzags are considered. The discussion is carried out in the framework of the Minkowski metric and standard quantum mechanics without adding new postulates. It is shown that the wave function is singular at the instant of the time zigzag. Nevertheless, we argue that time zigzags are not suppressed at the quantum level, but their contribution to the amplitude is zero. The result is valid for a single particle and a non-interacting scalar field.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2203.04200,
  title  = {Can a particle moves zigzag in time?},
  author = {Sergey G. Rubin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2203.04200},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

12 pages, 1 figure

R2 v1 2026-06-24T10:06:14.791Z