Physicists don't know what a mechanism preventing large-scale quantum superpositions would look like.
If the latter is the case, with advancing technology we could put large objects, maybe even sentient beings, into quantum states. If such heat is ruled out, then it's likely nature doesn't mind "being quantum" at any size. If such heat is found, this implies large-scale quantum superposition is impossible. If there is a mechanism that removes the potential for quantum superposition from large-scale objects, it would require somehow "disturbing" the wave function-and this would create heat. It has puzzled scientists and philosophers for about a century. This is what physicists call the "quantum measurement problem". This basically says quantum mechanics can only apply to atoms and molecules, but can't describe much larger objects.īut how does the wave function become a "real" object? When it's observed, it becomes a definite object.Īfter much debate, the scientific community at the time reached a consensus with the " Copenhagen interpretation". In other words, the cat exists as a wave function (with multiple possibilities) before it's observed. Until the box is opened and the cat is observed, the cat is both dead and alive at the same time. In it, a cat is placed in a sealed box in which a random quantum event has a 50–50 chance of killing it.
In the 1930s, Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger came up with his famous thought experiment about a cat in a box which, according to quantum mechanics, could be alive and dead at the same time. In our research, published today in Optica, we propose an experiment that may resolve this thorny question once and for all. The jury is still out on what it means for large-scale objects. Generally, quantum mechanics applies to the tiny world of atoms and particles. It's only when a measurement is carried out that the wave function "collapses" and the system ends up in one definite state. For example, a particle existing in several different places at once is what we call "spatial superposition". Quantum systems are ruled by what's called a " wave function": a mathematical object that describes the probabilities of these different possible situations.Īnd these different possibilities can coexist in the wave function as what is called a " superposition" of different states. But atoms and particles are governed by the rules of quantum mechanics, in which several different possible situations can coexist at once.
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