Does Spacetime Noncommutativity Extend to Macroscopic Scales?

  • Thread starter Thread starter selfAdjoint
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Qm Space
selfAdjoint
Staff Emeritus
Gold Member
Dearly Missed
Messages
6,843
Reaction score
11
I am reading up on the application of noncommutative coordinates to quantum mechanics, and I found this paragraph which I think many here will find interesting.


From http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/hep-th/pdf/0109/0109162.pdf

Quantum Field Theory on Noncommutative Spaces, by
Richard J. Szabo

The idea behind spacetime noncommutativity is very much inspired by quantum mechanics.
A quantum phase space is defined by replacing canonical position and momentum variables xi, pj with Hermitian operators \dot{x}^i, \dot{p}^j which obey the Heisenberg commutation relations [\dot{x}^j , \dot{p}^i] = i \hbar \delta^{ij} . The phase space becomes smeared out and the notion of a point is replaced with that of a Planck cell. In the classical limit ¯h → 0, one recovers an ordinary space. It was von Neumann who first attempted to rigorously describe such a quantum “space” and he dubbed this study “pointless geometry”, referring to the fact that the notion of a point in a quantum phase space is meaningless because of the Heisenberg
uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics. This led to the theory of von Neumann algebras and was essentially the birth of “noncommutative geometry”, referring to the study of topological spaces whose commutative C*-algebras of functions are replaced by noncommutative algebras [2]. In this setting, the study of the properties of “spaces” is
done in purely algebraic terms (abandoning the notion of a “point”) and thereby allows for rich generalizations.

Of course a phase space is not spacetime: by definition it's the space spanned by the canonical variables in the Hamiltonian: the Canonical Coordinates and the Canonical Momenta. Nevertheless the coordinates are convertible to spacetime coordinates and the momenta to the observed kind of momenta. So his point about spacetime being non-commutative at short distances is well taken.

Now this raises a question in my mind. The difference between the quantum world and the macroscopic one is not always one of scale, but rather of coherence. Quantum effects involving noncommutative operators over distances that can be seen with the naked eye have been demonstrated. So does spacetime noncommutativity extend to those visible cases too? Could it be experimentally demostrated?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Insights auto threads is broken atm, so I'm manually creating these for new Insight articles. Towards the end of the first lecture for the Qiskit Global Summer School 2025, Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Olivia Lanes (Global Lead, Content and Education IBM) stated... Source: https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/quantum-entanglement-is-a-kinematic-fact-not-a-dynamical-effect/ by @RUTA
If we release an electron around a positively charged sphere, the initial state of electron is a linear combination of Hydrogen-like states. According to quantum mechanics, evolution of time would not change this initial state because the potential is time independent. However, classically we expect the electron to collide with the sphere. So, it seems that the quantum and classics predict different behaviours!
According to recent podcast between Jacob Barandes and Sean Carroll, Barandes claims that putting a sensitive qubit near one of the slits of a double slit interference experiment is sufficient to break the interference pattern. Here are his words from the official transcript: Is that true? Caveats I see: The qubit is a quantum object, so if the particle was in a superposition of up and down, the qubit can be in a superposition too. Measuring the qubit in an orthogonal direction might...

Similar threads

Back
Top