Quantum Coherence and Closed Timelike Curves

TL;DR

The paper investigates how closed timelike curves cause quantum coherence loss, leading to apparent non-unitarity in the S matrix, and proposes a method to compute the superscattering matrix in such spacetimes.

Contribution

It introduces a prescription for calculating the superscattering matrix in spacetimes with closed timelike curves using analytic continuation from Euclidean metrics.

Findings

Quantum coherence is lost when closed timelike curves are present.

The superscattering matrix can be computed via analytic continuation from Euclidean space.

Presence of heat baths induces coherence loss in the quantum state.

Abstract

Various calculations of the $S$ matrix have shown that it seems to be non unitary for interacting fields when there are closed timelike curves. It is argued that this is because there is loss of quantum coherence caused by the fact that part of the quantum state circulates on the closed timelike curves and is not measured at infinity. A prescription is given for calculating the superscattering matrix $\$ $ on space times whose parameters can be analytically continued to obtain a Euclidean metric. It is illustrated by a discussion of a spacetime in with two disks in flat space are identified. If the disks have an imaginary time separation, this corresponds to a heat bath. An external field interacting with the heat bath will lose quantum coherence. One can then analytically continue to an almost real separation of the disks. This will give closed timelike curves but one will still get loss of quantum coherence.