A No-Go Result on Observing Quantum Superpositions

IF 1.2 3区物理与天体物理 Q3 PHYSICS, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Foundations of Physics Pub Date : 2024-04-20 DOI:10.1007/s10701-024-00760-y

Guang Ping He

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.

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观测量子叠加的禁区结果

我们给出了一个一般性证明，表明如果从一种状态到另一种状态的演化是不可逆转的，那么对这两种状态的叠加进行投影测量就是不可能的。将这一不可能的结果应用于薛定谔猫悖论意味着，如果有人声称某物是一只真正的薛定谔猫，那么在任何物理上可实现的过程中，它与普通猫的微不足道的经典混合物之间将没有可测量的区别，除非起死回生成为现实。由于缺乏非交换测量基础，其他类似的宏观量子叠加也无法被观测到。我们的证明不涉及任何量子解释理论和假设。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Foundations of Physics 物理-物理：综合

CiteScore

2.70

自引率

6.70%

发文量

104

审稿时长

6-12 weeks

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.