Emergent causal order and time direction: bridging causal models and tensor networks

Quantum Physics [Submitted on 5 Mar 2026] Emergent causal order and time direction: bridging causal models and tensor networks Carla Ferradini, Giulia Mazzola, V. Vilasini Can the direction of time and the causal structure of space-time be inferred from operational principles? Causal models and tensor networks offer complementary perspectives: the former encodes cause-effect relations via directed graphs, with intrinsic ordering; the latter describes multipartite systems on undirected graphs, without presupposing directionality. We construct two-way mappings between these two frameworks, linking direction agnostic correlation functions and operational notions of signalling. This clarifies the operational meaning of causal influence in tensor networks and introduces discrete "space-time rotations'' of causal models which preserve signalling relations. Applying our framework to holographic tensor networks, we use tools from causal inference, like graph-separation, to analyse emergent causal structures. By permitting cyclic and indefinite causal structures, our results enable transfer of techniques across tensor networks and a range of causality frameworks. Comments: 41+20 pages. Comments are welcome Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) Cite as: arXiv:2603.12283 [quant-ph]   (or arXiv:2603.12283v1 [quant-ph] for this version)   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2603.12283 Focus to learn more Submission history From: Carla Ferradini [view email] [v1] Thu, 5 Mar 2026 17:06:37 UTC (81 KB) Access Paper: view license Current browse context: quant-ph < prev   |   next > new | recent | 2026-03 Change to browse by: hep-th References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar Export BibTeX Citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Demos Related Papers About arXivLabs Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)