Relativistic Quantum Clock Fields and Compton-Phase Correlations

Abstract

We propose a covariant effective field theory in which the Compton-phase evolution of massive quantum systems is promoted to a dynamical scalar clock field ϕ(x). The mass–time duality  suggests that proper-time phase evolution may itself admit a field-theoretic description. The field propagates as a massless scalar in flat spacetime and couples covariantly to electromagnetism and gravity via operators suppressed by the Compton frequency. In squeezed vacuum states – which arise naturally in pair-creation processes such as parametric down-conversion, Hawking radiation, and cosmological particle production – the two-point correlation function of the clock field acquires a long-range, distance-independent component. This yields near-perfect phase correlation between spatially separated clocks while preserving micro-causality because the field commutator vanishes for spacelike separation. The framework predicts acceleration-dependent phase modulation via the Unified Equivalence Principle relation and a relic cosmological clock-noise background, potentially detectable in pulsar timing arrays and atomic clock networks. These results suggest that Compton-phase dynamics represents a physically relevant sector of relativistic quantum theory linking proper-time evolution with long-range quantum correlations.