SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT 🟡 | The Quantum Paradox SOLVED: Quantum Decoherence
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Schrödinger's cat is one of the most famous paradoxes in quantum mechanics. It was proposed by the renowned physicist Erwin Schrödinger. This paradox presents a thought experiment that illustrates the perplexing nature of the quantum world.
To understand this thought experiment, imagine a cat inside a completely dark box. Inside, a mechanism connects an electron detector to a hammer. And, right below the hammer, a glass vial containing a dose of poison lethal to the cat. If the detector picks up an electron, it will activate the mechanism, causing the hammer to fall and break the vial.
An electron is fired. Logically, two things can happen. The detector might pick up the electron and activate the mechanism. In that case, the hammer falls, breaks the vial, and the poison spreads inside the box. The cat inhales it and dies. Upon opening the box, we will find the cat dead. Or the electron might take another path and the detector won't pick it up, so the mechanism will never activate, the vial won't break, and the cat will remain alive. In this case, upon opening the box, the cat will be found safe and sound.
At the end of the experiment, there is a 50% probability of finding the cat alive and a 50% probability of finding the cat dead. From our perspective, there are two possibilities: that the cat is alive when the box is opened, or that the cat is dead. However, in quantum mechanics, both states are superimposed; that is, the cat is both alive and dead at the same time.
But what does this paradox really mean? And how is it possible for something to be both alive and dead at the same time?
Before understanding this incredible paradox, we must understand one of the best-known interpretations of quantum mechanics: the Copenhagen interpretation. This interpretation was formulated in 1927 by the Danish physicist Niels Bohr, with the help of Max Born and Werner Heisenberg, among others, during a conference held in Como, Italy.
The Copenhagen interpretation combines the theories of two great physicists of the time, Erwin Schrödinger and Werner Heisenberg, representing wave mechanics and matrix mechanics, respectively. It is established that a quantum system evolves over time as a wave that includes all possible positions and values of the particle; that is, the different states are superimposed.
Furthermore, the interpretation posits that as long as the properties of this wave are not measured, it persists and continues to have multiple values simultaneously. The superposition is maintained until an observer forces it to collapse. When an observer collapses the superposition of states, the wave disappears and transforms back into a particle with a single position. However, it is impossible to predict exactly what the outcome will be. Before it collapses, we only know the probabilities, the possible locations where the particle can appear. This is precisely where it relates to Schrödinger's cat paradox.
In the thought experiment, Schrödinger's cat is in a completely sealed box, inside which, besides the cat, there is a sealed container of poison gas and a device that will break the container to release the poison gas, thus ending the cat's life. This mechanism is based on radioactive atoms, which undergo quantum decay. Therefore, they are both decayed and not decayed at the same time.
Because the cat's state and the detector are directly linked to the state of the atom, they are said to be entangled. The probability of the cat's state depends strictly on what happens inside the box and on the atom's decay. As long as it remains closed, we can say that the cat is both alive and dead at the same time. This is known as superposition and extends to the state of the atom in the same way.
The radioactive particle detector acts as a switch, allowing or preventing the gas from escaping depending on the atom's position. Because of this superposition, the atom is both decayed and recomposed simultaneously, so the poison is contained and released at the same time. Consequently, the cat is both alive and dead at the same time. There is a 50% probability that both outcomes will occur.
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