Superposition Refutes Schrödinger's Cat Experiment

Colin James

We paraphrase Schrodinger's cat thought experiment as follows. A box hides from view a cat with a radioactive source where the probability of decay or no decay is equal. In the course of one hour, the probability of the state of decay causes the demise of the cat, or the probability of the state of no decay causes not the demise of the cat. Superposition is defined as both states rather than either state above, and is the red herring. Quantum theory asserts that either state implies both states concurrently as superposition. The state inside the box during the hour at any moment is not known exactly, but that does not mean both states are concurrent at any moment as superposition. However, before the end of the hour to open the box, interrupt the experiment, and force an inspection returns either state and hence falsifies a concurrent state of affairs of the red herring.

Edward B. Manoukian

Bernulf Kanitscheider

Ken Krechmer

In 1935 E. Schrödinger proposed a thought experiment to illustrate his concerns with superpositions in quantum measurements. It appears in his experiment that a cat is both alive and dead. This paradoxical superposition has not been explained before. The following identifies that calibration to a reference, currently assumed to be only empirical in measurement theory, explains the paradox of Schrödinger's cats.

Zeeya Merali

Art Hobson

Schrodinger's famous cat has long been misunderstood. According to quantum theory and experiments with entangled systems, an entangled state such as the Schrodinger's cat state is neither a superposition of states of either subsystem nor a superposition of compound states of the composite system, but rather a nonlocal superposition of correlations between pairs of states of the two subsystems. The entangled post-measurement state that results from an ideal measurement is not paradoxical, but is merely a coherent superposition of two statistical correlations at "zero phase angle," i.e. at 100% positive correlation. Thus the state of the radioactive nucleus and Schrodinger's cat is as follows: an undecayed nucleus is 100% positively correlated with an alive cat, and (i.e. superposed with) a decayed nucleus is 100% positively correlated with a dead cat. The superposition consists merely in the fact that both correlations are simultaneously true. Despite many published statements to the contrary, this superposition is not paradoxical. It is in fact what one expects intuitively.