I don’t know how or when or why, but I have developed a fascination for quantum physics and quantum theory.  It sounds super complicated, and it is, but the mere thought of it is so intriguing.  I try and understand it, and to some extent, I do, but there is still so much to learn.  One of the most famous concepts/ideas from quantum theory is Schrodinger’s cat.  I came across this idea and watched many videos on it.  Here is the most basic of an explanation as I could find below. It is still super confusing, but try to understand it. I would suggest watching this video before continuing with reading this blog.  Erwin Schrodinger shared the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics with Paul Dirac for discovering the equation for the behavior of quantum particles.  This study has been very well read, and fascinating to many people of the world, and I hope that I can interest you in this topic as well.

By definition, Schrodinger’s Cat “serves to demonstrate the apparent conflict between what quantum theory tells us is true about the nature and behavior of matter on the microscopic level and what we observe to be true about the nature and behavior of matter on the macroscopic level — everything visible to the unaided human eye.”  So basically, Erwin Schrodinger proposed this idea of superposition.  If you place a cat in a box with a decaying alpha particle, you will not know if the particle decayed, and the cat died, or if it did not decay and the cat is not dead. Until we record the observation, and see what truly happens inside of the box, the cat is in “superposition”  meaning the cat is both dead and alive.  You’re probably thinking, “this is too crazy, it doesn’t make sense!” I ask you to open your mind, and think about it for a little bit.  So when we look at the cat, and determine what state it is in, we are forcing the cat to collapse to one reality: dead or alive.  There is also another interpretation of this theory.  It is called the many worlds interpretation.  This states that when the reality collapses, we are simply living in one of many universes that exist simultaneously.   We see the dead cat, but in another reality, the cat is alive.  These findings that I just previously stated, our from two new studies done with photons (or light particles).

There have also been two new studies, one by Canada’s University of Calgary and the University of Geneva in Switzerland.  They used enough photons to be seen with the naked eye, so that the quantum properties become macroscopic.  In both studies, “they amplified the states of a single photon, entangling it with many other photons, and then restored it to its original state.”  The polarization methods after they have been restored is enough evidence to prove that quantum entanglement occurred.  They begin to wonder how big quantum entanglement can get until it collapses.

I came across an article titled, “Einstein kills Schrodinger’s Cat”  I was quickly drawn to this title, and was very eager to read it. In the beginning it explains that as objects get larger, it is harder for them to exist in the superposition because they interact with their environment.  So the idea of a large cat being in superposition is highly unlikely in today’s science.  There has been progression and advances in this field that would suggest this could exist in the future.  Pikovski, from Harvard University, and his colleagues have discovered what happens when you try to perform these quantum theory experiments in the presence of gravity.  Einstein suggested that gravity slows down time (demonstrated in Interstellar)  There have actually been lab experiments that reveal: our head ages slightly faster than our feet.  So if two different molecules are in a superposition, and they are at different heights, it will not work. Pikovski later states that if this field of study wants to go further with larger superposition, they must take their studies to space, where there is no gravity.

This picture demonstrates “superposition” The cat is both dead, and alive

Overall, the study of Schrodinger’s cat has been reproduced by scientists all over the world.  It has not been done on the large scale, like with a cat, but rather smaller particles like electrons and photons.  Scientists are making progress every day on this idea of quantum physics, and could soon discover a way for larger objects to exist in two places at once, the superposition.  It is an idea that continues to fascinate me, and I hope it does for you too.