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Switching quantum reference frames in the N-body problem and the absence of global relational perspectives

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arxiv 1809.05093 v3 pith:DLN3BTNG submitted 2018-09-13 quant-ph gr-qc

classification quant-phgr-qc
keywords gaugeproblemframeperspectivesquantumrelationalbodydirac
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abstract

Given the importance of quantum reference frames (QRFs) to both quantum and gravitational physics, it is pertinent to develop a systematic method for switching between the descriptions of physics relative to different choices of QRFs, which is valid in both fields. Here we continue with such a unifying approach, begun in arxiv:1809.00556, whose key ingredient is a symmetry principle, which enforces physics to be relational. Thanks to gauge related redundancies, this leads to a perspective-neutral structure which contains all frame choices at once and via which frame perspectives can be consistently switched. Formulated in the language of constrained systems, the perspective-neutral structure is the constraint surface classically and the gauge invariant Hilbert space in the Dirac quantized theory. By contrast, a perspective relative to a specific frame corresponds to a gauge choice and the associated reduced phase and Hilbert space. QRF changes thus amount to a gauge transformation. We show that they take the form of `quantum coordinate changes'. We illustrate this in a general mechanical model, namely the relational $N$-body problem in 3D space with rotational and translational symmetry. This model is especially interesting because it features the Gribov problem so that globally valid gauge fixing conditions, and hence relational frame perspectives, are absent. The constraint surface is topologically non-trivial and foliated by 3-, 5- and 6-dimensional gauge orbits, where the lower dimensional orbits are a set of measure zero. The $N$-body problem also does not admit globally valid canonically conjugate pairs of Dirac observables. These challenges notwithstanding, we exhibit how one can construct the QRF transformations for the 3-body problem. Our construction also sheds new light on the generic inequivalence of Dirac and reduced quantization through its interplay with QRF perspectives.

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Cited by 8 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

  1. Relational path integral, effective actions and quantum frame covariance in gravity

    hep-th 2026-07 conditional novelty 7.0 of 10

    The gravitational path integral is reformulated with dynamical reference frames, producing gauge-invariant correlators, frame-dependent vacua, and effective actions, with sharpness of events becoming frame-relative.

  2. How many degrees of freedom describe a quantum N-particle state?

    quant-ph 2026-07 conditional novelty 7.0 of 10

    For closed quantum N-particle systems all 3N canonical degrees of freedom are physical; the frame degrees of freedom that relational models discard reappear as non-Heisenberg terms in generalised uncertainty relations...

  3. Relational entanglement entropies and quantum reference frames in gauge theories

    hep-th 2025-06 accept novelty 7.0 of 10

    Quantum reference frames built from Wilson lines give lattice gauge theories gauge-invariant subsystem factorizations and a hierarchy of relational entanglement entropies.

  4. Relational Observables in Group Field Theory

    gr-qc 2024-12 conditional novelty 7.0 of 10

    POVM-based conditioning on scalar-field quantum reference frames defines relational observables in group field theory that match prior number and volume results on coherent states.

  5. Quantum clocks and the temporal localisability of events in the presence of gravitating quantum systems

    quant-ph 2019-08 conditional novelty 7.0 of 10

    An event is time-delocalised from the perspective of other gravitationally interacting clocks but always sharply localised from the perspective of the clock that triggers it.

  6. Robustness of Noether's principle: Maximal disconnects between conservation laws and symmetries in quantum theory

    quant-ph 2019-08 conditional novelty 7.0 of 10

    For rotationally symmetric quantum channels, spin polarization can be inverted by at most a factor of -j/(j+1) and amplified into a larger spin by at most (j_B+1)/(j_A+1), with conservation-law deviation bounded by ch...

  7. On the relation between perspective-neutral, algebraic, and effective quantum reference frames

    quant-ph 2025-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    For ideal quantum reference frames with a single constraint, the perspective-neutral, algebraic, and effective semiclassical approaches describe the same physics and the same frame-switching rules.

  8. Crossed products and quantum reference frames: on the observer-dependence of gravitational entropy

    hep-th 2024-12 accept novelty 6.0 of 10

    Gravitational subregion entropy is observer-dependent: different quantum clocks produce different von Neumann algebras and different entropy functionals for the same global state.

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