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Review and suggested resolution of the problem of Schrodinger's cat

arXiv
Authors: Art Hobson

Year

2017

Paper ID

24805

Status

Preprint

Abstract Read

~2 min

Abstract Words

190

Citations

N/A

Abstract

This paper reviews and suggests a resolution of the problem of definite outcomes of measurement. This problem, also known as "Schrodinger's cat," has long posed an apparent paradox because the state resulting from a measurement appears to be a quantum superposition in which the detector is in two macroscopically distinct states (alive and dead in the case of the cat) simultaneously. Many alternative interpretations of the quantum mathematical formalism, and several alternative modifications of the theory, have been proposed to resolve this problem, but no consensus has formed supporting any one of them. Applying standard quantum theory to the measurement state, together with the analysis and results of decades of nonlocality experiments with pairs of entangled systems, this paper shows the entangled measurement state is not a paradoxical macroscopic superposition of states. It is instead a phase-dependent superposition of correlations between states of the subsystems. Thus Schrodinger's cat is a non-paradoxical "macroscopic correlation" in which one of the two correlated systems happens to be a detector. This insight resolves the problem of definite outcomes but it does not entirely resolve the measurement problem because the entangled state is still reversible.

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  • This paper contributes to the Quantum Foundations research area in the Quantum Articles archive.
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  • This paper reviews and suggests a resolution of the problem of definite outcomes of measurement.

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