{"title":"A No-Go Result on Observing Quantum Superpositions","authors":"Guang Ping He","doi":"10.1007/s10701-024-00760-y","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We give a general proof showing that if the evolution from one state to another is not reversible, then the projective measurements on the superposition of these two states are impossible. Applying this no-go result to the Schrödinger’s cat paradox implies that if something is claimed to be a real Schrödinger’s cat, there will be no measurable difference between it and a trivial classical mixture of ordinary cats in any physically implementable process, unless raising the dead becomes reality. Other similar macroscopic quantum superpositions cannot be observed either, due to the lack of non-commuting measurement bases. Our proof does not involve any quantum interpretation theory and hypothesis.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":569,"journal":{"name":"Foundations of Physics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Foundations of Physics","FirstCategoryId":"101","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10701-024-00760-y","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PHYSICS, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
We give a general proof showing that if the evolution from one state to another is not reversible, then the projective measurements on the superposition of these two states are impossible. Applying this no-go result to the Schrödinger’s cat paradox implies that if something is claimed to be a real Schrödinger’s cat, there will be no measurable difference between it and a trivial classical mixture of ordinary cats in any physically implementable process, unless raising the dead becomes reality. Other similar macroscopic quantum superpositions cannot be observed either, due to the lack of non-commuting measurement bases. Our proof does not involve any quantum interpretation theory and hypothesis.
期刊介绍：
The conceptual foundations of physics have been under constant revision from the outset, and remain so today. Discussion of foundational issues has always been a major source of progress in science, on a par with empirical knowledge and mathematics. Examples include the debates on the nature of space and time involving Newton and later Einstein; on the nature of heat and of energy; on irreversibility and probability due to Boltzmann; on the nature of matter and observation measurement during the early days of quantum theory; on the meaning of renormalisation, and many others.
Today, insightful reflection on the conceptual structure utilised in our efforts to understand the physical world is of particular value, given the serious unsolved problems that are likely to demand, once again, modifications of the grammar of our scientific description of the physical world. The quantum properties of gravity, the nature of measurement in quantum mechanics, the primary source of irreversibility, the role of information in physics – all these are examples of questions about which science is still confused and whose solution may well demand more than skilled mathematics and new experiments.
Foundations of Physics is a privileged forum for discussing such foundational issues, open to physicists, cosmologists, philosophers and mathematicians. It is devoted to the conceptual bases of the fundamental theories of physics and cosmology, to their logical, methodological, and philosophical premises.
The journal welcomes papers on issues such as the foundations of special and general relativity, quantum theory, classical and quantum field theory, quantum gravity, unified theories, thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, cosmology, and similar.
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