Questions tagged [locality]
The locality tag has no usage guidance.
266 questions
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What does it mean when folks say that universe is not "Locally real"?
I've read somewhat about the matter but can't quite picture it. Is this a property that only applies at the quantum level and not the classical level like us?
So far I've seen some rather strange ...
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Locality in statistical field theory
In a lot of introductions to Landau-Ginzburg theory, which gives the partition function in the form of a functional integral $$\mathcal{Z}[F]=\int \mathcal{D}\phi e^{-\beta F(\phi)}$$
it is said that ...
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Spin of local quantum fields in 2 + 1 dimensions
While reading Chapter 8 of Khare's textbook "Fractional Statistics And Quantum Theory", I came across this following statement
In fact it appears unlikely that one can
obtain a simple, ...
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Some details about locality and conserved probability of Klein-Gordon equation
M. Srednicki in his book "QFT" has mentioned in page 4 that
" ... we get an infinite number of spatial derivatives acting on $\psi (x,t)$; this imples that equation $$i\hbar\frac{\...
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Electron shell transition and locality
So I'm just now starting to learn quantum physics, so I don't know very much.
What I do however (think I) know, is that the wave function for an electron around the atom can instantaneously transition ...
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How does the holographic principle explain the emergence of bulk locality in AdS/CFT?
I've been reading up on the holographic principle and the AdS/CFT correspondence, and I've hit a bit of a conceptual roadblock that I'm hoping someone can help me with.
In the AdS/CFT correspondence, ...
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Can pilot wave theory be modified to retain locality?
My understanding is that pilot wave theory is explicitly non-local in that the guiding equation is dependant on the instantaneous positions of all particles in the universe.
Without going into any ...
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Why don't non-local theories typically have any energy-momentum tensor?
This great answer by @AccidentalFourierTransform says that for energy momentum tensors we need locality and Lorentz invariance. The rest of the answer focuses on metric dependence of partition ...
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How is information defined when considering locality in quantum mechanics?
$\newcommand{\ket}[1]{|#1\rangle}$
My question is a follow-up from this discussion about the presence of non-local correlations in a theory that is deemed local. The first answer talks about the ...
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Is there any restriction for locally mapping a given 2-qubit density matrix into a desired 2-qubit density matrix with lower entanglement?
Suppose we're given a 2-qubit density matrix($\rho_{4\times4}$). we can apply two local maps on each of these qubits seperatly. So the output is density matrix($\rho^{\prime}_{4\times4}$).
I'm ...
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Definition of “quasi-locality” in Wilsonian RG scheme
I’m studying about the holographic RG with this paper.
In that paper they say Wilsonian action expects quasi locality, but I’m not sure what “quasi-locality" exactly means.
If quasi-locality ...
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Can you model relativistic interactions without locality?
Assume $c=1$
I've been doing relativity by myself so I may be making some assumptions here that I would not have if my learning had been more extensive.
One such assumption is that you can model the ...
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Is conservation of energy a local law in Quantum field theory? [closed]
From Wikipedia,
"The local energy conservation in quantum field theory is ensured by the quantum Noether's theorem for the energy-momentum tensor operator. Thus energy is conserved by the normal ...
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Lorentz invariance (LI) of time ordering operation
At Srednicki after eq. (4.10), we have a discussion about that the time ordering operation. Have to be frame inv. I.e it has to be LI.
He wrote that for timelike separation we don't have to worry ...
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On the notion of Local Causality
In 1976, John Bell proved that any locally causal theory can't account for certain observed correlations, he formulated the local causality hypotesis in terms of "local beables".
In ...
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Confusion around Bell's Theorem and Locality
I recently got interested in foundational aspects of quantum mechanics and I have some questions:
Bell's theorem proves that any local, deterministic theory with statistical independence can't account ...
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$SO(3,1)$ is locally $SU(2)\times SU(2)$, what does *locally* mean here?
I am learning Lie group and Lie algebra. I saw in a YouTube video "Supersymmetry lecture 02" from OpenCourseWare (OCW) at University of Cambridge at 11:17 that
$SO(3,1)$ is locally $SU(2) \...
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Equivalence of two entangling operators with respect to local operators
Suppose that $U_1$ and $U_2$ are two (entangling) operators that act on a quantum system consisting of several qubits. Is there any criterion to tell if these two are equivalent up to applying ...
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What do we mean by causality when we say that entanglement measurements are uncaused? [duplicate]
I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around how the measurement of particle A does not affect the state of an entangled particle B even if no superluminal speeds exist.
Suppose Alice makes a ...
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How to interpret Poisson bracket of fields in terms of causality?
In quantum field theory, the fact that space-like separated observables commute, i.e. $[\hat {\phi (x)}, \hat{\phi(y)}]=0$, is taken as the test for causality. The equivalent statement for classical ...
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Newton's second law - local laws and non-local laws
What are local laws? I was reading this line in a book...
Newtons second law is a local law. This means that it applies to a particle at a particular instant without taking into consideration any ...
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Is Quantum randomness true randomness? [closed]
I would like you guys to read it, and see whether it makes sense, and correct me if anything is wrong.
I'm not an expert on these topics, so I understand if very wrong. It would be wonderful if you ...
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Are field theories where free energy density depends on 2nd-order derivative non-local?
It is accepted that infinite order of derivatives in field theory lead to non-local effects while finite number of them local.
reference within physics stack exchange
Let’s take a lattice with next-...
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Is there any limit to the utility of quantum measurements in the sense of a Lieb-Robinson bound?
So the Lieb-Robinson bound of 1972 derives an emergent maximum speed $v \ll c$ of the propagation of quantum information under time evolution generated by some local Hamiltonian $H(t)$. Basically, ...
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Well-definedness of commutation relation in commuting local Hamiltonians
I'm reading the famous paper by Haah: Local stabilizer codes in three dimensions without string logical operators. In the last sentence of the introduction, he wrote:
A logical operator is a Pauli ...
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Why does it make sense to add/subtract the results of measuring in 2 different bases in Bell's inequality when each observer only measures 1 property?
In the CHSH inequality, we construct an experiment whereby two observers each receive a particle and measure two given properties of their particles, for which the outcomes are ±1. We then consider ...
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Are field theories necessary to make accurate predictions or do they just make calculations easier?
For example, if we really wanted to, could we, at least in principle, model electromagnetism just considering interactions between charged particles without using the EM field? That is, is it ...
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Understanding superdeterminism
I was reading about superdeterminism and it was a bit counter-intuitive. The idea of having a hidden variable on the measurement device is very rational. For example, if we emit light to a constrained ...
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Is a super-deterministic universe local or nonlocal? [closed]
Bell predicted predetermined (nonlocal) choice as the criteria for a super-deterministic universe.
...our belief that we are free to choose to do one experiment rather
than another, absolutely ...
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Understanding this abstract Lagrangian of effective field theory
I'm learning Wilson's approach to renormalization and the Effective Field Theory. Typically, the theory is defined by a Lagrangian valid up to some scale $Λ$. I saw these two definitions for 4-...
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Ostrogradsky instability and fractional derivatives
Are fractional derivatives (or even more generally differentegrals) also under the scope of the Ostrogradsky instability theorem?
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How does Bell's theorem disprove realism?
I am told that the the violation of Bell's inequalities prove that the universe cannot have local realism. That is to say, the universe cannot both be local and real.
I understand how Bell's theorem ...
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What does it mean to say the universe is not locally real? [duplicate]
Pardon me if this is a naive question.
What is difference between saying space-time is not locally real, and saying it is not real?
The proposal that the universe is not locally real seems to imply ...
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How is the non-locality of a theory apparent from its mathematical form?
I am reading Relativistic Quantum Mechanics by Bjorken and Drell and on page 5 they present the following attempt at a relativistic Hamiltonian for a free particle
\begin{equation}
i\hbar\frac{\...
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How localized are photons in a quantum field?
Are photons or other quanta at least somewhat localized in a quantum field?
My limited understanding of quantum field theory is that photons or other fundamental particles (quanta) are excitations of ...
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Non- Local operators and Entanglement
Given a separable state, $|\psi\rangle$ = $|a\rangle\otimes|b\rangle$, operating on this state with a local operator of the form, $A\otimes B$ will not lead to an entangled state. Is the converse true?...
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Locality and local gauge invariance
I was reading this question on the Physics Stack Exchange, and I'm still not quite sure how I can understand the relationship between locality and local gauge invariance using this example. Consider ...
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How to understand the principle of locality from a common example?
I'm reading the definition of the principle of locality from its Wikipedia page:
The principle of locality states that an object is influenced directly only by its immediate surroundings.
This ...
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Is Gauss law for gravity local?
in Newtonian gravity, the gravitational field obeys the equation
$$\nabla^2 \phi = 4 \pi G \rho$$
David Tong in his notes on general relativity claims that this equation works well when $\rho$ is not ...
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In an entangled system, what happens to Alice's wavefunction right after Bob makes a measurement?
Suppose two entangled particles are far apart. One is with Alice and the other is with Bob. The relative velocity between Alice and Bob is zero (and spacetime is flat), so that we can define a notion ...
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Don't Bell experiments rule out local non-realism too? [duplicate]
Bell experiments rule out local realism (hidden variables). But it seems to me that it also rules out local non-realism (no hidden variables).
Local non-realism makes 2 claims;
Two distant events can'...
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How to tell if a theory is "local"?
Suppose I have a collection of $N$ quantum systems, which I would like to think of as lattice sites. If you tell me that these $N$ sites have some particular embeddings $\vec{x}_i$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$, ...
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Cluster decomposition $\stackrel{?}{=}$ Translation invariance
In Weinberg Volume 1 (section 4.4), Weinberg argues for a certain structure of the interaction Hamiltonian by demanding that it produce an $S$-matrix satisfying cluster decomposition. The proposed ...
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Proof that conservation of momentum is Lorentz invariant
In classical mechanics, if
$$\frac{\mathrm d}{\mathrm d t}\sum_i m_i\vec{v_i}=0$$is true for one frame of reference, then it is easy to prove that this is true for all frames (since different frames ...
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Why is the local component of sound particle-velocity not associated with a local component of pressure?
A sound wave can be described by the pressure field or the sound air particle velocity (acoustic flow). Both are intrinsic to any sounds, i.e. there is no sound wave if no pressure or no particle ...
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How does the many-worlds interpretation solve spooky action at a distance?
If we take the classic example of two particles that are entangled with up spin and down spin, and we separate these particles a few light years apart and then observe them one after the other, they ...
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Is there something that violates "time locality"?
The way I understand locality is that for an object to influence another object away from it, it has to do so through the space that separates them. It can shoot out an EM wave to the other object, ...
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Local nature of physical laws
All the laws in physics are local in nature and that's why their formulation follows differential equations. My doubt is whether the locality is a proven theorem or it is a postulate?
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Is causality a consequence or a constraint in physics?
I wonder if causality is a constraint that we must add to physical models (if needed), or is it a consequence of Lorentz invariance and locality (or something else). In other words, which properties ...
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What are the implications of rejecting the local tomography assumption?
Recently I presented on the paper by Renou, et. al. in Nature (Quantum theory based on real numbers can be experimentally falsified) developing an experimental technique for rejecting real ...
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