Would Superluminal Influences Violate the Principle of Relativity?

TL;DR

This paper argues that superluminal influences do not necessarily violate special relativity, clarifying misconceptions and proposing more general notions of simultaneity compatible with quantum nonlocality.

Contribution

It refutes common objections to superluminal influences within relativity and suggests alternative conceptions of simultaneity that accommodate quantum nonlocality.

Findings

Misunderstandings about Minkowski geometry are clarified.

Objections based on absolute motion detection are addressed.

A new conception of simultaneity is proposed to reconcile superluminal influences with relativity.

Abstract

It continues to be alleged that superluminal influences of any sort would be inconsistent with special relativity for the following three reasons: (i) they would imply the existence of a distinguished' frame; (ii) they would allow the detection of absolute motion; and (iii) they would violate the relativity of simultaneity. This paper shows that the first two objections rest upon very elementary misunderstandings of Minkowski geometry and lingering Newtonian intuitions about instantaneity. The third objection has a basis, but rather than invalidating the notion of faster than light influences it points the way to more general conceptions of simultaneity that could allow for quantum nonlocality in a natural way.