General nonexistence of LHV dynamics for interacting quantum dynamics

Prove that there exists at least one instance of interacting quantum dynamics for which dynamical local hidden-variable (LHV) dynamics does not exist; specifically, establish the existence of an interacting evolution that cannot be captured by any state-independent evolution of hidden variables on a fixed single-particle hidden-variable space reproducing the time evolution of local correlations.

Background

After constructing dynamical LHV models for noninteracting (separable) unitaries, the authors identify a simple interacting two-qubit example that appears incompatible with LHV dynamics. This motivates a broader conjecture that interactions can obstruct the existence of state-independent hidden-variable evolutions even when correlations remain local at all times.

The conjecture seeks a fundamental limitation: dynamics-induced nonlocality manifested as the impossibility of assigning a single, state-independent hidden-variable evolution to reproduce the full time evolution of otherwise locally simulable correlations.

References

This leads us to conjecture that LHV dynamics does not always exist for interacting quantum dynamics.

On the Dynamics of Local Hidden-Variable Models  (2512.16682 - Selzam et al., 18 Dec 2025) in Introduction