Superluminal velocities and nonlocality in relativistic mechanics with scalar potential
Abstract
Even though the usual form of relativistic mechanics does not allow superluminal particle velocities and nonlocal interactions, these features are not forbidden by relativity itself. To understand this on a deeper level, we study a generalized form of relativistic mechanics in which the particle is influenced not only by the usual tensor (gravitational) and vector (electromagnetic) potentials, but also by the scalar potential. The scalar potential promotes the mass squared M2 to a dynamical quantity. Negative values of M2, which lead to superluminal velocities, are allowed. The generalization to the many-particle case allows a nonlocal scalar potential, which makes nonlocal interactions compatible with relativity. Particle trajectories are parameterized by a scalar parameter analogous to the Newton absolute time. An example in which all these general features are explicitly realized is provided by relativistic Bohmian mechanics.