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Electromechanical systems currently offer a path to engineering quantum states of microwave and micromechanical modes that are of both fundamental and applied interest. Particularly desirable, but not yet observed, are mechanical states…
A quantum many-body model is presented with features similar to those of certain particle detectors. The energy spectrum contains a single metastable 'ready'-state and macroscopically-distinct 'pointer' states. Measurements do not pose…
Conceptually different from the decoherence program, we present a novel theoretical approach to macroscopic realism and classical physics within quantum theory. It focuses on the limits of observability of quantum effects of macroscopic…
The applicability of computational models to the biological world is an active topic of debate. We argue that a useful path forward results from abandoning hard boundaries between categories and adopting an observer-dependent, pragmatic…
This is a philosophical paper. It claims that there is a gap to be filled in the relationship between complexity theory (CT) and quantum theory (QT). This gap concerns two very distinct understandings of time. The paper provides the ground…
Intriguing dichotomies in quantum measurement theory involving the role of the obersever, objective reality, collapse of wavefunctions and actualization of a measurement outcome are cast into a patholigical gedanken experiment involving a…
Quantum technology is seeing a remarkable explosion in interest due to a wave of successful commercial technology. As a wider array of engineers and scientists are needed, it is time we rethink quantum educational paradigms. Current…
We discuss the possibility of generating and detecting, by a tomographic reconstruction of the Wigner function, a macroscopic superposition of two coherent states. The superposition state is created using a conditioned measurement on the…
It is argued that the orthodox interpretation of quantum mechanics is in conflict with the objective existence of space-time, and suggested that kets are labels which name real states of matter but do not directly describe them. Position is…
Micro-Macro Duality means here the universal mutual relations between the microscopic quantum world and various macroscopic classical levels, which can be formulated mathematically as categorical adjunctions. It underlies a unified scheme…
One of the longest standing open problems in science is how life arises from non-living matter. If it is possible to measure this transition in the lab, then it might be possible to understand the physical mechanisms by which the emergence…
We study bifurcations in a spatially extended nonlinear system representing population dynamics with the help of analytic calculations based on the time-independent Schr\"{o}dinger equation for a quantum particle subjected to a uniform…
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.…
This text introduces the twin deadlocks of strong artificial life. Conceptualization of life is a deadlock both because of the existence of a continuum between the inert and the living, and because we only know one instance of life.…
All the concepts and principles necessary to understand quantum mechanics on an initial level are given in a form suitable for the non-expert. The concepts explained include visualizing the wave function, wave-particle duality, the…
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 motion of a ball through an appropriate lattice of round obstacles models the behavior of a Brownian particle and can be used to describe measurement on a macro system. On another hand, such motion is chaotic and a known conjecture…
We demonstrate the possibility of controlling the border between the quantum and the classical world by performing nonselective measurements on quantum systems. We consider a quantum harmonic oscillator initially prepared in a Schroedinger…
Quantum mechanics marks a radical departure from the classical understanding of Nature, fostering an inherent randomness which forbids a deterministic description; yet the most fundamental departure arises from something different. As shown…
Massive objects in spatial superposition may provide insights into the interplay between quantum mechanics and gravity. Cold atomic interferometers offer a promising platform due to extended matter-wave coherence times and precise…