On Einstein Causality and Time Asymmetry in Quantum Physics

Abstract

A theorem of Hegerfeldt shows that if the spectrum of the Hamiltonian is bounded from below, then the propagation speed of certain probabilities does not have an upper bound. We prove a theorem analogous to Hegerfeldt's that appertains to asymmetric time evolutions given by a semigroup of operators. As an application, we consider a characterization of relativistic quasistable states by irreducible representations of the causal Poincare semigroup and study the implications of the new theorem for this special case.