Quantum equivalence principle

A proposal in quantum foundations, distinct from the classical general-relativistic equivalence principle, that a quantum system's own reference frame — including its finite mass and quantum uncertainty — must itself be treated quantum-mechanically rather than as a fixed classical background. It is the subject of Yakir Aharonov and Gideon Carmi's founding 1973/74 papers ("Quantum aspects of the equivalence principle," Found. Phys. 3:493, and "Quantum-related reference frames and the local physical significance of potentials," Found. Phys. 4:75) and of Aharonov and Tirzah Kaufherr's 1984 follow-up, "Quantum Frames of Reference" (Phys. Rev. D 30:368).

In the vault it matters as the physics result the entire priority dispute in claim-aharonov-quantum-frames-of-reference-work-predated-1973-1984-publication-by-decade concerns: per Aharonov's own 2026 account, the idea predates both publications by roughly a decade, worked out with Aage Petersen at Brandeis in the mid-1960s but never published at the time. Aharonov dates an adjacent connection even earlier, to a 1967 paper with Daniel Wisnivesky on a gravitational analogue of the Aharonov-Bohm effect.

References

• claim-aharonov-quantum-frames-of-reference-work-predated-1973-1984-publication-by-decade
• claim-kaufherr-1981-phd-thesis-predates-1984-journal-paper-by-three-years