Clipped from: Technology Review: Blogs: arXiv blog: How to Create Quantum Superpositions of Living Things |
How to Create Quantum Superpositions of Living Things
First photons, atoms and molecules. Now physicists want to create a quantum superposition of a virus, which will allow them to perform Schrodinger's Cat experiment for real.
[...]
But why bother? Performing a Schrodinger's cat experiment would be fun (although not for the virus). Romero-Isart and pals go further and say the work will "experimentally address fundamental questions, such as the role of life in quantum mechanics,and differences between many-world and Copenhagen interpretations". Perhaps.
Clipped from: Schrödinger's cat - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment, often described as a paradox, devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. It illustrates what he saw as the problem of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics applied to everyday objects.
Schrödinger's Cat: A cat, along with a flask containing a poison, is placed in a sealed box shielded against environmentally induced quantum decoherence. If an internal Geiger counter detects radiation, the flask is shattered, releasing the poison that kills the cat. The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics implies that after a while, the cat is simultaneously alive and dead. Yet, when we look in the box, we see the cat either alive or dead, not a mixture of alive and dead.
Clipped from: YouTube - Schrodinger's Cat for real |
Clipped from: Skeptic's Play: Intro to the Quantum Measurement Problem |
Intro to the Quantum Measurement Problem
The Copenhagen Interpretation
[...] According to this interpretation, particles can be described by their wavefunctions. Wavefunctions behave like waves. They propagate around walls, and can go through multiple slits simultaneously. They can diffract and interfere with themselves.
Unlike normal waves, we cannot observe wavefunctions directly. If we try to observe a wavefunction, something called "wavefunction collapse" occurs. When a wavefunction collapses, it suddenly becomes like a particle.[...]
Clipped from: Skeptic's Play: Quantum superposition |
Quantum superposition
Superposition may sound really weird, but mathematically, it's not weird at all. Schrodinger's equation, the equation that defines quantum mechanics, has the property that if you take any two wavefunctions and add them together, you'll get another wavefunction. So if you take one wavefunction with energy E1 and another wavefunction with energy E2, and add them together, you get a mixed state which has a superposition of energy levels E1 and E2 simultaneously![...]
If you actually try to measure the energy of a mixed state, you are guaranteed to observe one and only one energy. If you have a particle that is partly in the E1 state and partly in the E2 state, the way we interpret that is that there is a certain probability of measuring E1 and a certain probability of measuring E2. As soon as we measure it, the particle changes into a pure state again. This is called wavefunction collapse, which is the doorway to many of the philosophical questions that loom around quantum mechanics.
Clipped from: [0909.1469] Towards Quantum Superposition of Living Organisms |
Title: Towards Quantum Superposition of Living Organisms
Clipped from: Dr. Oriol Romero-Isart - MPQTheory |
Dr. Oriol Romero-Isart
Sources:Technology Review: Blogs: arXiv blog: How to Create Quantum Superpositions of Living Things
Schrödinger's cat - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
File:Schrodingers cat.svg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
YouTube - Schrodinger's Cat for real
Skeptic's Play: Intro to the Quantum Measurement Problem
[0909.1469] Towards Quantum Superposition of Living Organisms
Skeptic's Play: Quantum superposition
[0909.1469] Towards Quantum Superposition of Living Organisms
Dr. Oriol Romero-Isart - MPQTheory
Related:
Virus en superposicion cuántica « La Singularidad Desnuda
Copenhagen interpretation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia