Quantum probabilities for the causal ordering of events

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new formalism for assigning probabilities to the causal order of events in quantum systems, showing that quantum event orderings arise from quantum dynamics without needing quantum gravity.

Contribution

It generalizes classical causal probability notions to quantum systems, clarifying that quantum event orderings are due to quantum dynamics, not quantum gravity.

Findings

Probabilities for quantum causal orderings are experimentally accessible.

Quantum orderings of events emerge from quantum dynamics on fixed backgrounds.

Classical notions of causality are extended to quantum scenarios without trajectories.

Abstract

We develop a new formalism for constructing probabilities associated to the causal ordering of events in quantum theory, where by an event we mean the emergence of a measurement record on a detector. We start with constructing probabilities for the causal ordering events in classical physics, where events are defined in terms of worldline coincidences. Then, we show how these notions generalize to quantum systems, where there exists no fundamental notion of trajectory. The probabilities constructed here are experimentally accessible, at least in principle. Our analysis here clarifies that the existence of quantum orderings of events does not require quantum gravity effects: it is a consequence of the quantum dynamics of matter, and it appears in presence of a fixed background spacetime.