The Temporal Nature of Quantum Collapse: A Relational Interpretation Based on Proper Time
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This work is obsolated by https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18061160 This earlier formulation proposed a physical mechanism of branch selection and suggested interferometric tests. These claims are reconsidered and replaced by a more cautious and conceptually refined interpretation in the subsequent work. --- This work proposes a temporal formulation of quantum collapse based on proper time. Instead of treating collapse as an instantaneous projection on a universal time slice, the model interprets state reduction as a relational phenomenon emerging from finite temporal accessibility windows along the observer’s worldline. The proposal is grounded in relativistic kinematics: each physical system evolves according to its own proper time, and collapse occurs only when the temporal separation between alternatives becomes physically incompatible with continued relational coherence. This interpretation preserves the standard operational predictions of quantum mechanics while reframing collapse as a physical limitation on relational continuity rather than a metaphysical discontinuity. The resulting framework links decoherence, relativistic time dilation, and measurement-selection into a unified temporal ontology. Where standard collapse models treat state reduction as either an epistemic update or a discontinuous physical jump, this work advances the view that collapse is fundamentally temporal and relational: a manifestation of the limits of physical accessibility between worldlines. Rather than asking “when does collapse happen?”, this interpretation asks “for whom can coherence still exist?” and grounds the answer in proper time intervals. The loss of coherence is not an ontological rupture but a saturation of temporal distinguishability. In this framework, relational availability replaces metaphysical simultaneity. Two alternatives can only interfere so long as their proper-time separation remains below a physical compatibility threshold; beyond that threshold, the relational channel closes, and collapse is nothing more than the disappearance of physical access. This turns collapse from a mystery into a relativistic constraint on informational reach. The temporal interpretation developed here remains empirically consistent with the standard formalism of quantum mechanics while reframing measurement as a boundary condition on relational time. It suggests that quantum indeterminacy is not a failure of description, but a structural feature of temporality itself: coherence is a privilege of proximity in proper time.
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7093333758
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