Physics – High Energy Physics – High Energy Physics - Theory
Scientific paper
1995-03-03
Phys.Rev. D52 (1995) 2176-2182
Physics
High Energy Physics
High Energy Physics - Theory
19pages, RevTeX3, We have added a number of references and clarified the role of the Markovian approximation in the loss of en
Scientific paper
10.1103/PhysRevD.52.2176
It has been argued that any evolution law taking pure states to mixed states in quantum field theory necessarily gives rise to violations of either causality or energy-momentum conservation, in such a way as to have unacceptable consequences for ordinary laboratory physics. We show here that this is not the case by giving a simple class of examples of Markovian evolution laws where rapid evolution from pure states to mixed states occurs for a wide class of states with appropriate properties at the ``Planck scale", suitable locality and causality properties hold for all states, and the deviations from ordinary dynamics (and, in particular, violations of energy-momentum conservation) are unobservably small for all states which one could expect to produce in a laboratory. In addition, we argue (via consideration of other, non-Markovian models) that conservation of energy and momentum for all states is not fundamentally incompatible with causality in dynamical models in which pure states evolve to mixed states.
Unruh William G.
Wald Robert M.
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