Schrödinger's Cat: Where Does The Entanglement Come From?

Schrödinger's cat is one of the most striking paradoxes of quantum mechanics that reveals the counterintuitive aspects of the microscopic world. Here, I discuss the paradox in the framework of quantum information. Using a quantum networks formalism, I analyse the information flow between the a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Radu Ionicioiu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Quanta 2017-10-01
Series:Quanta
Online Access:https://dankogeorgiev.com/ojs/index.php/quanta/article/view/33
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Summary:Schrödinger's cat is one of the most striking paradoxes of quantum mechanics that reveals the counterintuitive aspects of the microscopic world. Here, I discuss the paradox in the framework of quantum information. Using a quantum networks formalism, I analyse the information flow between the atom and the cat. This reveals that the atom and the cat are connected only through a classical information channel: the detector clicks → the poison is released → the cat is killed. No amount of local operations and classical communication can entangle the atom and the cat, which are initially in a separable state. This casts a new light on the paradox. Quanta 2017; 6: 57–60.
ISSN:1314-7374