Relativistic limits on the discretization and temporal resolution of a quantum clock

Abstract

We provide a brief discussion regarding relativistic limits on the discretization and temporal resolution of time values in a quantum clock. Our clock is characterized by a time observable chosen to be the complement of a bounded and discrete Hamiltonian which can have an equally-spaced or a generic spectrum. In the first case the time observable can be described by a Hermitian operator and we find a limit in the discretization for the time eigenvalues. Nevertheless, in both cases, the time observable can be described by a POVM and, by increasing the number of time states, we show how the bound on the minimum time quantum can be reduced and identify the conditions under which the clock values can be treated as continuous. Finally, we find a limit for temporal resolution of our time observable when the clock is used (together with light signals) in a relativistic framework for measuring spacetime distances.