English

Quantum Time and the Time-Dilation induced Interaction Transfer mechanism

Quantum Physics 2024-11-25 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

Given a bipartite quantum system in an energy eigenstate, the dynamical description for one component can be derived via entanglement using the other component as a clock. This is the essence of the Page and Wootters mechanism. Moreover, if the clock is subject to a gravitational-like interaction, relative time evolution is then described by a Time-Dilated Schr\"odinger equation, in which the so-called Redshift Operator describes a purely quantum effect, analogue to gravitational time-dilation. Here we adopt a non-perturbative approach and present a finite-dimensional generalisation of this mechanism, expressing the quantum time-dilation effect as an effective interaction involving previously non-interacting system components. We name this a Time-Dilation induced Interaction Transfer (TiDIT) mechanism and discuss an example using two coupled spins as a quantum clock model. Our approach is suitable for implementations in current quantum technology and provides a new tool for exploring gravity at the intersection with quantum physics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2407.00161,
  title  = {Quantum Time and the Time-Dilation induced Interaction Transfer mechanism},
  author = {Dario Cafasso and Nicola Pranzini and Jorge Yago Malo and Vittorio Giovannetti and Marilù Chiofalo},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2407.00161},
  year   = {2024}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T17:23:12.057Z