re: “Quantum mechanics’ core assumption is that on the smallest scales, atomic properties are quantized...For example, an electron can be in a lowest-energy state”
QM fails even here; QM provide NO justifiable first-principles reason WHY the lowest electron state is what it is.
No doubt things are “quantized”, but QM proponents have missed other key properties of the atom.
All cats aside, i believe it’s imprecise of the article to say a quantum particle is in two places or states at once. Rather, quantum mechanics says it cannot tell which place or state a particle is in until it’s measured. QM / schrodinger’s wave function doesn’t say a particle is distributed over two or more Locations or states. Rather, it gives us the range of locations or states where we can expect to find the particle — with probabilities we will find it at each location / state. In short, it says nothing about where the particle is now —it is not descriptive/ of the present—it instead gives us predictive information about the future — what we can expect of our measurements. You can say that the formula is a mathematical construct that tells us about the future of our measurements and nothing actually about the present status or location of the particle ———
“it unpredictably snaps into the new state”
What is the approx. elapsed time of the average “snap”?
It expresses the inability of the classical concepts “particle” or “wave” to fully describe the behaviour of quantum-scale objects.
As Albert Einstein wrote:[1]
“It seems as though we must use sometimes the one theory and sometimes the other, while at times we may use either. We are faced with a new kind of difficulty. We have two contradictory pictures of reality; separately neither of them fully explains the phenomena of light, but together they do.”
Through the work of Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Louis de Broglie, Arthur Compton, Niels Bohr, and many others, current scientific theory holds that all particles exhibit a wave nature and vice versa.[2]
This phenomenon has been verified not only for elementary particles, but also for compound particles like atoms and even molecules.
For macroscopic particles, because of their extremely short wavelengths, wave properties usually cannot be detected.[3]
Although the use of the wave-particle duality has worked well in physics, the meaning or interpretation has not been satisfactorily resolved; see Interpretations of quantum mechanics.
Bohr regarded the “duality paradox” as a fundamental or metaphysical fact of nature.
A given kind of quantum object will exhibit sometimes wave, sometimes particle, character, in respectively different physical settings.
He saw such duality as one aspect of the concept of complementarity.[4]
Bohr regarded renunciation of the cause-effect relation, or complementarity, of the space-time picture, as essential to the quantum mechanical account.[5]
Werner Heisenberg considered the question further.
He saw the duality as present for all quantic entities, but not quite in the usual quantum mechanical account considered by Bohr.
He saw it in what is called second quantization, which generates an entirely new concept of fields that exist in ordinary space-time, causality still being visualizable.
Classical field values (e.g. the electric and magnetic field strengths of Maxwell) are replaced by an entirely new kind of field value, as considered in quantum field theory.
Turning the reasoning around, ordinary quantum mechanics can be deduced as a specialized consequence of quantum field theory.[6][7]
Contents
1 History
1.1 Classical particle and wave theories of light
1.2 Black-body radiation and Planck’s law
1.3 Photoelectric effect
1.3.1 Einstein’s explanation of photoelectric effect
1.4 de Broglie’s hypothesis
1.5 Heisenberg’s Uncertainty principle
1.6 de Broglie–Bohm theory
2 Wave nature of large objects
3 Importance
4 Visualization
5 Alternative views
5.1 1. Both-particle-and-wave view
5.2 2. Wave-only view
5.3 3. Particle-only view
5.4 4. Neither-wave-nor-particle view
5.5 5. Relational approach to wave–particle duality
6 Uses
7 See also
8 References
9 External links
What does this mean in terms of “Spooky Action at a Distance” non-local (instantaneous!) communication between entangled quantum entities?
(Submitted on 1 Mar 2018 (v1), last revised 12 Feb 2019 (this version, v3))
Quantum physics was invented to account for two fundamental features of measurement results — their discreetness and randomness.
Emblematic of these features is Bohr’s idea of quantum jumps between two discrete energy levels of an atom.
Experimentally, quantum jumps were first observed in an atomic ion driven by a weak deterministic force while under strong continuous energy measurement.
The times at which the discontinuous jump transitions occur are reputed to be fundamentally unpredictable. Can there be, despite the indeterminism of quantum physics, a possibility to know if a quantum jump is about to occur or not?
Here, we answer this question affirmatively by experimentally demonstrating that the jump from the ground to an excited state of a superconducting artificial three-level atom can be tracked as it follows a predictable “flight,” by monitoring the population of an auxiliary energy level coupled to the ground state.
The experimental results demonstrate that the jump evolution when completed is continuous, coherent, and deterministic. Furthermore, exploiting these features and using real-time monitoring and feedback, we catch and reverse a quantum jump mid-flight, thus deterministically preventing its completion.
Our results, which agree with theoretical predictions essentially without adjustable parameters, support the modern quantum trajectory theory and provide new ground for the exploration of real-time intervention techniques in the control of quantum systems, such as early detection of error syndromes.
My experience is that human consciousness works the same way. It functions in levels or quanta.
In meditation, any level of consciousness above me is perceived as light. When that higher consciousness comes to a lower level, it gives off light.
Consciousness functions the same manner as the Danish physicist Neal’s Bohr discovered electrons do when they change orbotals.
Consciousness must be “”Whole” or stabilized at on level before a person can transcend into the higher level of consciousness which yields a new perception of reality.
This is why all religions teach what they do.
Yale researchers have figured out how to catch and save Schrödinger's famous cat, the symbol of quantum superposition and unpredictability, by anticipating its jumps and acting in real time to save it from proverbial doom.
In the process, they overturn years of cornerstone dogma in quantum physics.
The discovery enables researchers to set up an early warning system for imminent jumps of artificial atoms containing quantum information. A study announcing the discovery appears in the June 3 online edition of the journal Nature.
Schrödinger's cat is a well-known paradox used to illustrate the concept of superposition—the ability for two opposite states to exist simultaneously—and unpredictability in quantum physics.
The idea is that a cat is placed in a sealed box with a radioactive source and a poison that will be triggered if an atom of the radioactive substance decays.
The superposition theory of quantum physics suggests that until someone opens the box, the cat is both alive and dead, a superposition of states.
Opening the box to observe the cat causes it to abruptly change its quantum state randomly, forcing it to be either dead or alive.
The quantum jump is the discrete (non-continuous) and random change in the state when it is observed.
The experiment, performed in the lab of Yale professor Michel Devoret and proposed by lead author Zlatko Minev, peers into the actual workings of a quantum jump for the first time.
The results reveal a surprising finding that contradicts Danish physicist Niels Bohr's established view—the jumps are neither abrupt nor as random as previously thought.
For a tiny object such as an electron, molecule, or an artificial atom containing quantum information (known as a qubit), a quantum jump is the sudden transition from one of its discrete energy states to another.
In developing quantum computers, researchers crucially must deal with the jumps of the qubits, which are the manifestations of errors in calculations.
The enigmatic quantum jumps were theorized by Bohr a century ago, but not observed until the 1980s, in atoms.
"These jumps occur every time we measure a qubit," said Devoret, the F.W. Beinecke Professor of Applied Physics and Physics at Yale and member of the Yale Quantum Institute. "Quantum jumps are known to be unpredictable in the long run."
"Despite that," added Minev, "We wanted to know if it would be possible to get an advance warning signal that a jump is about to occur imminently."
Minev noted that the experiment was inspired by a theoretical prediction by professor Howard Carmichael of the University of Auckland, a pioneer of quantum trajectory theory and a co-author of the study.
In addition to its fundamental impact, the discovery is a potential major advance in understanding and controlling quantum information.
Researchers say reliably managing quantum data and correcting errors as they occur is a key challenge in the development of fully useful quantum computers.
The Yale team used a special approach to indirectly monitor a superconducting artificial atom, with three microwave generators irradiating the atom enclosed in a 3-D cavity made of aluminum.
The doubly indirect monitoring method, developed by Minev for superconducting circuits, allows the researchers to observe the atom with unprecedented efficiency.
Microwave radiation stirs the artificial atom as it is simultaneously being observed, resulting in quantum jumps.
The tiny quantum signal of these jumps can be amplified without loss to room temperature.
Here, their signal can be monitored in real time.
This enabled the researchers to see a sudden absence of detection photons (photons emitted by an ancillary state of the atom excited by the microwaves); this tiny absence is the advance warning of a quantum jump.
"The beautiful effect displayed by this experiment is the increase of coherence during the jump, despite its observation," said Devoret.
Added Minev, "You can leverage this to not only catch the jump, but also reverse it."
This is a crucial point, the researchers said.
While quantum jumps appear discrete and random in the long run, reversing a quantum jump means the evolution of the quantum state possesses, in part, a deterministic and not random character; the jump always occurs in the same, predictable manner from its random starting point.
"Quantum jumps of an atom are somewhat analogous to the eruption of a volcano," Minev said.
"They are completely unpredictable in the long term.
Nonetheless, with the correct monitoring we can with certainty detect an advance warning of an imminent disaster and act on it before it has occurred.
https://phys.org/news/2019-06-physicists-schrodinger-cat.html
Two states at the same time - been aware of t for ever....first time I was 12 and noticed a girl with the prettiest legs and decide she was beautiful...then she turned around and her face said otherwise...then I noticed her eyes and she was beautiful again...
Been paying more attention to the eyes ever since....
But - there were definitely a few states existing at the same time....
A statement is either true or untrue. There is no midpoint between true and untrue. It is impossible to talk with anyone who doesn’t accept that axiom.
Some people apply quantum physics to the real, tangible world, and come to ridiculous conclusions.
That cat HAS to be dead by now.
I’d like send my wife’s puking cat to it’s rightful end state!
Yeah, I get all that, but was it a wooden box or a cardboard box?
They both saved and unsaved it. We can’t know until we make an observation.
