Schrodinger’s Cat

“Remember me? This was my wave equation that showed how psi (the wavefunction) evolves over time. When applied to an electron, it gives all the various possible states of the electron in superposition at any given time.”

“God does not play dice with the universe.”

--Albert Einstein

Einstein didn’t believe in the probabilistic model of the atom, or that things “came into existence” only when observed. He wrote to Schrodinger and explained that it was nonsense to believe that an unobserved keg of gunpowder is both exploded and unexploded.

Schrodinger agreed and argued that his equation should only apply to quantum level phenomena and not be generalized for macroscopic objects.

He explained in a letter to Einstein:

Schrodinger’s Cat: A thought experiment created to show the “absurdity”

of extending his wave equation to larger systems.

“You are the only contemporary physicist who sees that one cannot get around the assumption of reality, if only one is honest. Most of them simply do not see what sort of risky game they are playing with reality—reality as something independent of what is experimentally established.” (Einstein)

Word, Schrodinger. I feel ya.

“It is typical of these cases that an indeterminacy originally restricted to the atomic domain becomes

transformed into macroscopic indeterminacy, which can then be resolved by direct observation. That prevents us from so naively accepting as valid a "blurred model" for

representing reality.” (Schrodinger)

There’s a limit, folks. At some point systems become too large to be in a

superimposed state.

I think.

Pushing the Limits of Cat States

The “Cat State” has been achieved with 8 photons, polarized vertically and horizontally at the same time.

A beryllium ion has been trapped in a superimposed state

A billion electrons have been documented as moving as one group in both directions at the same time in a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID).

A piezoelectric (charged crystals) tuning fork made of 10 trillion atoms can be placed in a vibrating and non-vibrating state at the same time.