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Local PT Symmetry Violates the No-Signaling Principle

Yi-Chan Lee, Min-Hsiu Hsieh, Steven T. Flammia, and Ray-Kuang Lee
Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 130404 – Published 3 April 2014
Physics logo See Synopsis: Reflecting on an Alternative Quantum Theory

Abstract

Bender et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 5243 (1998)] have developed PT-symmetric quantum theory as an extension of quantum theory to non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. We show that when this model has a local PT symmetry acting on composite systems, it violates the nonsignaling principle of relativity. Since the case of global PT symmetry is known to reduce to standard quantum mechanics A. Mostafazadeh [J. Math. Phys. 43, 205 (2001)], this shows that the PT-symmetric theory is either a trivial extension or likely false as a fundamental theory.

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  • Received 12 December 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.130404

© 2014 American Physical Society

Synopsis

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Reflecting on an Alternative Quantum Theory

Published 3 April 2014

A new analysis of PT symmetric theory—a possible alternative to conventional quantum mechanics—shows that it would allow signals to be sent faster than the speed of light.

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Authors & Affiliations

Yi-Chan Lee1,2,*, Min-Hsiu Hsieh2, Steven T. Flammia3, and Ray-Kuang Lee1,4

  • 1Physics Department, National Tsing-Hua University, Hsinchu City 300, Taiwan
  • 2Centre for Quantum Computation & Intelligent Systems, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology, Sydney, New South Wales 2007, Australia
  • 3School of Physics, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia
  • 4Institute of Photonics Technologies, National Tsing-Hua University, Hsinchu City 300, Taiwan

  • *xellosslee@gmail.com

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Issue

Vol. 112, Iss. 13 — 4 April 2014

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