QI In the literature: partially resolved

Can causal inequalities be violated when spacetime itself is superposed?

In plain words

Some theoretical processes give correlations that no fixed, or randomly chosen, order of events could explain; these violate causal inequalities. They cannot appear for events localized in an ordinary fixed spacetime; whether a spacetime in superposition, as quantum gravity may allow, can produce them is unknown.

Precise statement

Causal inequalities bound correlations $p(a,b\mid x,y)$ achievable when parties act in a definite or classically random order. With spacetime-localized operations in a fixed acyclic spacetime they cannot be violated (Vilasini and Renner, PRA 2024), and on time-delocalized subsystems they can (Wechs, Branciard, Oreshkov, Nat. Commun. 2023). Determine whether a violation by spacetime-localized operations is possible when the spacetime geometry itself is in superposition (a gravitating source mass in spatial superposition), and give the minimal source mass and coherence time for it.

What would settle it

A proof that localized realizations are impossible even with superposed geometry, or an explicit physical protocol with a gravitating source in superposition achieving a violation.

Status in the literature

Unverified note

Fixed-spacetime localized realizations are excluded (Vilasini and Renner, PRA 2024); time-delocalized realizations exist (Wechs et al., 2023); the dynamical-spacetime case is open.

See also