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Instantaneous Spreading and Einstein Causality in Quantum Theory

1998/09/11 by Gerhard C. Hegerfeldt
Physics and Astronomy · #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1002/(sici)1521-3889(199812)7:7/8<716::aid-andp716>3.0.co;2-t

published as Annalen Phys.7:716-725,1998 · Talk given at the workshop Superluminal (?) Velocities, Cologne, June 6-10, 1998. To appear in Annalen der Physik

arxiv created 1998/09/11 · arxiv updated 2016/04/20

Abstract

In nonrelativistic quantum mechanics the wave-function of a free particle which initially is in a finite volume immediately spreads to infinity. In a nonrelativistic theory this is of no concern, but we show that the same instantaneous spreading can occur in relativistic quantum theory and that transition probabilities in widely separated systems may instantaneously become nonzero. We discuss how this affects Einstein causality.

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