Scientists at Dartmouth College, St Anselm's College and Santa Clara University in the United States have discovered the phenomenon of quantum time dilation. It is expressed in the effect of the superposition of particles on the deceleration of a high-precision atomic clock moving at relativistic speeds. This is reported in an article published in Nature Communications.
According to the researchers, quantum time dilation is a consequence of both quantum mechanics and Einstein's theory of relativity. Physicists have considered a quantum clock, which is based on the internal degrees of freedom of particles that move at a speed close to the speed of light. According to Einstein, the proper time of a clock depends on how fast it moves: the higher the speed, the more the clock slows down. However, it turned out that the quantum nature of particles corrects this effect.
To develop the theory of quantum time dilation, physicists combined the principles of quantum informatics with the quantum theory of gravity. The superposition principle is that a quantum system can be in a state that is a “combination” of two mutually exclusive states from the classical point of view. Thus, an atomic clock can be in a superposition of two different proper times. In this case, the magnitude of the quantum time dilation depends on the nature of the superposition.
