Sensing relativistic quantum fields with minimally perturbing local measurements

F. Daem; L. Ballesteros Ferraz; A. Zampeli; A. Matzkin

Sensing relativistic quantum fields with minimally perturbing local measurements

Quantum Physics 2026-07-20 v1 High Energy Physics - Theory

Authors: F. Daem , L. Ballesteros Ferraz , A. Zampeli , A. Matzkin

Abstract

We develop a framework for minimally perturbing local measurements in relativistic quantum field theory, with the aim to sense local properties of the field in a non-destructive manner. The field properties are sensed by weakly coupled pointers and encapsulated in conditional expectation values dependent on a postselection of the field state. Our operational protocol uses causally admissible Kraus updates for the field, in line with recent relativistic measurement theories, keeping in mind restrictions related to ``impossible measurements''. We illustrate our approach with three applications: a spacelikeness detector for causal-structure sensing, counting particle-creation densities in a supercritical potential and non-destructive discrimination between entangled states of the field and mixtures.

Keywords

relativistic quantum field theory local measurements weak coupling Kraus operators causal structure entanglement

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.17920,
  title  = {Sensing relativistic quantum fields with minimally perturbing local measurements},
  author = {F. Daem and L. Ballesteros Ferraz and A. Zampeli and A. Matzkin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.17920},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

12 pages, 4 figures