TITLE:
Configuration-Dependent Complex Time in Delayed-Choice Interferometry
AUTHORS:
Gaël Ronsyn
KEYWORDS:
Delayed-Choice Experiment, Coherence, Imaginary Time, Dephasing, Temporal CHSH
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Quantum Information Science,
Vol.16 No.2,
June
23,
2026
ABSTRACT: We introduce a configuration-dependent parametrisation of coherence in Wheeler’s delayed-choice experiment based on the complex quantity
T=t?iτ
. The real component
t
retains its usual causal role, while the imaginary component
τ
encodes the attenuation of coherence without representing a physical time coordinate or an additional degree of freedom. Different interferometric configurations correspond to different decompositions of
T
, effectively acting as an internal rotation that modifies the imaginary-time difference between paths and therefore the visibility. This mechanism alters coherence without affecting causal evolution and does not require retrocausality. The construction is fully compatible with standard quantum mechanics: it preserves unitary evolution, the Born rule, and the structure of completely positive trace-preserving (CP-TP) maps, and is equivalent to a standard dephasing channel written in a compact parametrised form. The framework yields experimentally testable predictions for visibility modulation and temporal correlations, including a temporal CHSH protocol that departs from classical bounds through the configuration dependence of
Δτ
rather than through any modification of the underlying dynamics.