Zeno-Constrained Formation of Relativistic Mass Shells

TL;DR

This paper explores how continuous quantum monitoring can lead to emergent relativistic structures, such as mass-shell constraints and Lorentzian signatures, in the effective dynamics of open quantum systems.

Contribution

It introduces a novel quantum Zeno regime analysis that results in relativistic features emerging from non-relativistic quantum dynamics.

Findings

Effective flow approaches an infrared fixed point with Lorentzian signature.

Null set of the quadratic form defines a mass-shell-like constraint surface.

Relativistic distributions like Maxwell-Juettner emerge at the infrared fixed point.

Abstract

We study an extension of the quantum linear Boltzmann equation describing irreversible momentum-space dynamics of an open quantum system under strong continuous monitoring. The monitored observable is taken to be a quadratic form in an extended, purely Euclidean four-dimensional momentum space, without assuming any fixed signature at the microscopic level. In the resulting quantum Zeno regime, rapid suppression of off-constraint excursions allows for an adiabatic elimination of fast degrees of freedom. Using a Schur-complement construction, the induced second-order corrections give rise to an effective flow of the monitored quadratic form under temporal coarse graining. Under mild isotropy assumptions on the underlying momentum-mixing dynamics and an appropriate calibration condition, this flow approaches an infrared fixed point characterized by a quadratic form of Lorentzian signature. The corresponding null set defines a mass-shell-like constraint surface that governs the long-time Zeno-projected dynamics and whose isometry group matches the kinematic structure of Lorentz transformations at the effective level. Familiar relativistic features, including Maxwell-Juettner-type stationary distributions, arise at the level of the effective infrared description as consequences of this fixed point within the extended quantum Boltzmann framework.