Related papers: On Schr\"odinger's cat
Schroedinger's famous thought experiment involves a (macroscopic) cat whose quantum state becomes entangled with that of a (microscopic) decaying nucleus. The creation of such micro-macro entanglement is currently being pursued in several…
In his famous thought experiment, Wigner assigns an entangled state to the composite quantum system made up of Wigner's friend and her observed system. While the two of them have different accounts of the process, each Wigner and his friend…
Quantum optomechanics exploits radiation pressure effects inside optical cavities. It can be used to generate quantum states of the center-of-mass motion of massive mechanical objects, thereby opening up a new parameter regime for…
In both quantum mechanics and relativity theory, the concept of the observer plays a critical role. However, there is no consensus on the definition of observer in these theories. Following Einstein's thought experiments, one could ask:…
Although quantum mechanics is a mature theory, fundamental problems discussed during its time of foundation have remained with us to this day. These problems are centered on the problematic relation between the quantum and classical worlds.…
In a generalized Schr\"odinger picture, we consider the motion of a relativistic particle in an external field (like in the case of a harmonic oscillator). In this picture the analogs of the Schr\"odinger operators of the particle are…
In Rydberg dressed ultra-cold gases, ground state atoms inherit properties of a weakly admixed Rydberg state, such as sensitivity to long-range interactions. We show that through hyperfine-state dependent interactions, a pair of atom clouds…
I review basic principles of the quantum mechanical measurement process in view of their implications for a quantum theory of general relativity. It turns out that a clock as an external classical device associated with the observer plays…
We discuss general properties of the equilibrium state of parametric down-conversion in superconducting quantum circuits with detunings and Kerr anharmonicities, in the strongly nonlinear regime. By comparing moments of the steady state and…
Deep in the ultrastrong light-matter coupling regime, it has been predicted that the ground state of a two-level atom interacting with a cavity mode takes the form of a "virtual" Schr\"odinger cat entangled state between light and matter.…
The transition from quantum to classical, in the case of a quantum harmonic oscillator, is typically identified with the transition from a quantum superposition of macroscopically distinguishable states, such as the Schr\"odinger cat state,…
The scientific method relies on facts, established through repeated measurements and agreed upon universally, independently of who observed them. In quantum mechanics, the objectivity of observations is not so clear, most dramatically…
If we consider a cat to be an isolated mechanical system governed by T-invariant mechanics, then its ability to land on its feet after being released from rest is incomprehensible. It is more appropriate to treat the cat as a creature that…
Most discussions of decoherence in the literature consider the high-temperature regime but it is also known that, in the presence of dissipation, decoherence can occur even at zero temperature. Whereas most previous investigations all…
Quantum mechanics predicts that unobserved systems may exist in a superposition of states, yet measurement produces definite outcomes, a tension at the heart of the quantum-to-classical boundary. How the transformation between these…
The question whether quantum mechanics is complete and the nature of the transition between quantum mechanics and classical mechanics have intrigued physicists for decades. There have been many experimental breakthroughs in creating larger…
We give a general proof showing that once irreversible processes are involved, a class of projective measurements is impossible. Applying this no-go result to the Schroedinger's cat paradox implies that if something is claimed to be a real…
In 1929 Szilard pointed out that the physics of the observer may play a role in the analysis of experiments. The same year, Bohr pointed out that complementarity appears to arise naturally in psychology where both the objects of perception…
It is pointed out that Schr\"odinger's celebrated "cat" paradox contains a simple error in reasoning regarding the definition of life. It is then shown that there is no paradox in the context of life as we currently understand it.
A mathematical model of the interaction mechanism for the intuitive-imaginative and heuristic-logical thinking responsible for the rift in the intellectual activity into two cultures has been suggested. The said model proceeds from the…