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Boosting unstable particles

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arxiv 2206.05125 v2 pith:BUWYQ5R6 submitted 2022-06-07 physics.gen-ph hep-thquant-ph

classification physics.gen-phhep-thquant-ph
keywords quantumdecayedeffectparticleparticlestheorythereunstable
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In relativity, there is no absolute notion of simultaneity, because two clocks that are in different places can always be desynchronized by a Lorentz boost. Here, we explore the implications of this effect for the quantum theory of unstable particles. We show that, when a wavefunction is boosted, its tails travel one to the past and the other to the future. As a consequence, in the new frame of reference, the particle is in a quantum superposition "decayed + non decayed", where the property "decayed-ness" is entangled with the position. Since a particle cannot be localised in a region smaller than the Compton wavelength, there is a non-zero lower bound on this effect, which is fundamental in nature. The surprising implication is that, in a quantum world, decay probabilities can never be Lorentz-invariant. We show that this insight was the missing ingredient to reconcile the seemingly conflicting views about time dilation in relativistic quantum mechanics and quantum field theory.

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

  1. Scattering off unstable states

    hep-ph 2025-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    A finite-time QFT treatment removes the t-channel singularity that appears when an unstable particle scatters off another particle.

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