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Quantum field theory cannot provide faster-than-light communication

Foundations of Physics Letters volume 2, pages 127–149 (1989)Cite this article

Abstract

We spell out a demonstration that, within the framework of quantum field theory, no faster-than-light communication can be established between observers. The steps of the demonstration are detailed enough to pinpoint which properties of the theory have been misinterpreted in previous papers claiming the existence of effects that could permit such communication. The developments described here can also be used to analyze future papers making similar claims.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, 94720, Berkeley, California, USA

    Phillippe H. Eberhard & Ronald R. Ross

Authors
  1. Phillippe H. Eberhard
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  2. Ronald R. Ross
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Additional information

1. This work was supportd by the U. S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098.

2. In the literature, communication between observers is often referred to as “signaling,” “transmission of a signal,” or “exchange of information.”

3. Ref. 3 is an elaboration on a previous paper by the same author [25], whose results were already generalized in Refs. 26 and 27.

4. In Ref. 25, it is stated that, if a particle is definitely inV S at timet = 0, it cannot have a zero probability to be inV R at two arbitrary but different times, which we callT 0 andT. We takeT 0 = 0 for simplicity.

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Eberhard, P.H., Ross, R.R. Quantum field theory cannot provide faster-than-light communication. Found Phys Lett 2, 127–149 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00696109

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Key words

  • quantum mechanics
  • quantum field theory
  • faster-than-light communication