Large effects from quantum reference frames

2025/06/17 by Bojowald, Martin, Martinez, Luis
#FOS: Physical sciences #Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2506.14721

Abstract

Reference frames are used to parameterize measurements of physical effects, but since their practical realization uses material objects, they may affect observations performed in a combined quantum state of the measured system together with the frame. Here, a procedure is used that makes it possible to describe non-monotonic reference scales in a quantum treatment, revealing large quantum effects in the measured system whenever a reference frame encounters a turning point. Subtle quantum correlations in the combined state of system and frame, and more broadly the concept of relational quantum mechanics, can be tested via a characteristic and surprisingly large shift in the measured value.

Citations

• Relational Dynamics with Periodic Clocks
• Laser cooling ⁸⁸Sr to microkelvin temperature with an integrated-photonics system
• Perspective-neutral approach to quantum frame covariance for general symmetry groups
• Relative subsystems and quantum reference frame transformations
• The electronic properties of graphene
• Relational quantum mechanics

Related

• Relativity of Quantum Correlations: Invariant Quantities and Frame-Dependent Measures
• Operational Quantum Frames: An operational approach to quantum reference frames
• Quantum Space-Time Transformations and Reference Frames States
• Searching for a physical description relative to a quantum system
• Symmetry, Reference Frames, and Relational Quantities in Quantum Mechanics