Speaker
Description
In relational quantum dynamics, evolution emerges via the correlations between some system of interest and a clock system, which plays the role of a temporal reference frame. Their combined state satisfies a Wheeler-de Witt-like constraint equation, and therefore does not evolve, leading to a „block universe“ picture. I will talk about temporal localization and causal relations, when comparing emergent dynamics with respect to different choices of clock. Starting by explaining to which extent two clocks can agree on the direction of time and the temporal localization of events, I will then present ways to incorporate the operational notion of causality into relational dynamics. This requires a clearly defined notion of interventions, i.e. quantum operations, and I will compare two different approaches to modeling these operations within relational dynamics. The first considers their application via the choice of solutions to the constraint equation, i.e. the choice of which „history“ is considered. The second approach incorporates the operations into the constraint equation itself and thereby into its solutions, giving a dynamical picture of the interventions. From the perspective of a single clock, both approaches allow for a notion of operational causality in relational dynamics. However, for multiple clocks, only the second approach gives a consistent picture regarding causal relations, while necessarily manifesting some degree of temporal delocalization between frames. Moreover, this second approach, when considering certain cases of temporal delocalization, naturally describes scenarios with indefinite causal order, a well-known quantum feature of operational causality.