No-faster-than-light-signaling implies linear evolutions. A re-derivation

Abstract

There is a growing interest, both from the theoretical as well as experimental side, to test the validity of the quantum superposition principle, and of theories which explicitly violate it by adding nonlinear terms to the Schr\"odinger equation. We review the original argument elaborated by Gisin (1989 Helv. Phys. Acta 62 363), which shows that the non-superluminal-signaling condition implies that the dynamics of the density matrix must be linear. This places very strong constraints on the permissible modifications of the Schr\"odinger equation, since they have to give rise, at the statistical level, to a linear evolution for the density matrix. The derivation is done in a heuristic way here and is appropriate for the students familiar with the textbook quantum mechanics and the language of density matrices.