A science fiction staple is the scene where an older and wiser character advances the action by explaining Schrödinger’s cat paradox to prospective time travelers looking to take advantage of a warp in time.
Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961) was a serious Nobel Prize-winning Austrian physicist whose fields of interest included thermodynamics and quantum theory. Specifically, he developed a unique interpretation of wave theory in the context of the stationary and time-dependent Schrödinger equation.
In 1929, his paper titled Quantization as an Eigenvalue Problem outlined this new equation. It included a derivation of the wave equation that provided eigenvalues for the hydrogen atom, fertile ground for those comfortable with matrix terminology, the predecessor to quantum theory.
A decade later, Schrödinger addressed some strange implications inherent in a paper by Albert Einstein and others. They had discussed the then-current Copenhagen Interpretation, which stated that an atom or photon, regarded as a quantum system, can, under certain conditions, be simultaneously in different, contrary states. These states are known as superpositions. The Copenhagen Interpretation stated that such a quantum system would maintain this strange status until observed by an entity (human or otherwise) in the outside world, whereupon the system would collapse into one of the alternate states.
Schrödinger devised a thought experiment intended to elucidate this process. It must be realized that in proffering this thought experiment, he was not taking a position relative to the Copenhagen Interpretation, but rather was visualizing it in graphic terms.
Let us imagine, he would say, that in a sealed box, a cat is placed along with a bottle of poison and a small amount of radioactive material. There is also a radiation detector such as a Geiger counter, wired through a relay to a hammer. If and when a single radioactive atom decays releasing radiation, a truly random event, the mechanical devise shatters the bottle, causing the cat to be killed.
The Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics requires that because the atomic decay happens at an indeterminate time, the cat actually exists in both states, dead and alive. The situation is resolved if and only if an external observer opens the box and perceives whether or not the cat is alive.
This bizarre experiment would probably not be performed, and if it were performed, it would be inconclusive because there could be no knowledge of the cat’s state until the box were to be opened. That is why it will forever be a thought experiment. Nevertheless, it fulfills its stated purpose of elucidating the Copenhagen Interpretation. It also raises an array of questions. For example, what if the cat is merely sleeping, and the observer wrongly concludes that it is dead?
There is much debate over the implications of the experiment. Does it assert the existence of parallel universes so that both outcomes may be true? One conclusion suggests itself: There is still a lot that we do not know about this strange reality that we inhabit.
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