Causal Trade-Offs in Superluminal Extensions of Relativity. A no-go theorem
Abstract
Extensions of relativity that include superluminal reference frames have recently been proposed by Dragan and Ekert as a way to reconcile relativistic symmetry with quantum uncertainty. In this work, we develop a causal modelling framework to formally study this proposal and prove a no-go theorem demonstrating that a theory permitting superluminal reference frames can avoid superluminal signalling only if it severely constrains which spacetime regions are accessible to operational protocols, if the choice of reference frame has observable consequences or if free variables do not exist or their existence depends on the reference frame. Crucially, our result goes beyond the familiar intuition that superluminal transformations may lead to superluminal signalling; our no-go result shows that Dragan and Ekert's proposal of introducing objective uncertainty does not, by itself, eliminate this conflict. In fact, because superluminal signalling might instead be avoided by relaxing other fundamental assumptions in the presence of superluminal reference frames, the proposed objective uncertainty may not be necessary at all. Our results clarify the limitations of uncertainty-based resolutions and the causal trade-offs faced by superluminal extensions of relativity.
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BibTeX
@misc{sen2026causal,
title = {{Causal Trade-Offs in Superluminal Extensions of Relativity. A no-go theorem}},
author = {Amrapali Sen and Matthias Salzger and V. Vilasini},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.00494},
eprint = {2610.00494},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.00494},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Causal Trade-Offs in Superluminal Extensions of Relativity. A no-go theorem
AU - Amrapali Sen
AU - Matthias Salzger
AU - V. Vilasini
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.00494
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.00494
AB - Extensions of relativity that include superluminal reference frames have recently been proposed by Dragan and Ekert as a way to reconcile relativistic symmetry with quantum uncertainty. In this work, we develop a causal modelling framework to formally study this proposal and prove a no-go theorem demonstrating that a theory permitting superluminal reference frames can avoid superluminal signalling only if it severely constrains which spacetime regions are accessible to operational protocols, if the choice of reference frame has observable consequences or if free variables do not exist or their existence depends on the reference frame. Crucially, our result goes beyond the familiar intuition that superluminal transformations may lead to superluminal signalling; our no-go result shows that Dragan and Ekert's proposal of introducing objective uncertainty does not, by itself, eliminate this conflict. In fact, because superluminal signalling might instead be avoided by relaxing other fundamental assumptions in the presence of superluminal reference frames, the proposed objective uncertainty may not be necessary at all. Our results clarify the limitations of uncertainty-based resolutions and the causal trade-offs faced by superluminal extensions of relativity.
ER -