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Extends quantum interpretations of the Lorentz transformation, revealing novel predictions in atom interferometry.
This paper extends the derivation of the Lorentz transformation from count-based observables to the quantum level. It maps each ingredient of the classical Bondi k-calculus derivation onto the Page-Wootters (PaW) framework and extracts the k-factor as a ratio of clock POVM eigenvalues, completing the derivational chain from Ĥ|Ψ⟩ = 0 to the full Lorentz transformation. Promoting the k-factor to an operator k̂ = (Ĥ_cm + p̂c)/(mc²) reveals quantum corrections for a detector in momentum superposition. The corrections are asymmetric: the time dilation sector receives mean corrections at order (σ_p/(mc))², while the simultaneity sector is protected to leading order. Both sectors decohere at rates proportional to σ_p/(mc). The paper derives a concrete experimental prediction: fringe visibility in an atom interferometer decays as V(L) = exp(−(ω₀σ_pL/(mc²))²/2), with a coherence horizon L_C = √2 mc²/(ω₀σ_p). For cold cesium at the D2 optical transition (852 nm), L_C ≈ 7.3 km at 1 μK. The effect is absent for macroscopic detectors and present only when the detector itself is a quantum system. The primary experimental discriminator is the temperature dependence: predicted visibility tracks the atom's thermal momentum spread σ_p = √(mk_BT), a property of the detector atom that no environmental noise source can mimic. All corrections vanish in the classical limit σ_p → 0, recovering the companion paper's Bondi derivation exactly. The prediction provides testable consequences of the surplus structure framework in atom interferometry and quantum clock networks.
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Badriram Rajagopalan (2026) studied this question.
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