Nonlocality and local causality in the Schrödinger equation with time-dependent boundary conditions

We investigate the nonlocal dynamics of a single particle placed in an infinite well with moving walls. It is shown that in this situation, the Schr ̈odinger equation (SE) violates local causality by causing instantaneous changes in the probability current everywhere inside the well. This violation is formalized by designing a gedanken faster-than-light communication device which uses an ensemble of long narrow cavities and weak measurements to resolve the weak value of the momentum far away from the movable wall.

Our system is free from the usual features causing nonphysical violations of local causality when using the (nonrelativistic) SE, such as instantaneous changes in potentials or states involving arbitraily high energies or velocities. We explore in detail several possible artifacts that could account for the failure of the SE to respect local causality for systems involving time-dependent boundary conditions.

The article was published in: Physics Letters A 382(46): 3347-3354.

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This work was supported (in part) by the Fetzer Franklin Fund of the John E. Fetzer Memorial Trust.