On Sunday, October 20, 2019 at 11:35:13 AM UTC-6, Brent wrote: > > > > On 10/19/2019 6:56 PM, Alan Grayson wrote: > > Sean says the decoherence time is 10^(-20) sec. So when the box is closed, >> the cat is in a superposition of alive and dead during that time interval, >> assuming the decay hasn't happened. If that's the case, I don't see how >> decoherence solves the paradox, unless we can assume an initial condition >> where the probability of one component of the superposition, that the cat >> is dead, is zero. Maybe this is the solution. What do you think? AG >> > > Maybe this is an easier question; after decoherence, assuming the > radioactive source hasn't decayed, what is the wf of the cat? Is the cat > in a mixed state, alive or dead with some probabIlity for each? AG > > > You can't "assume the radioactive source hasn't decayed". The point > Schroedinger's thought experiment is that when the box is closed you don't > know whether or not it has decayed and so it is in a superposition of > decayed and not-decayed and the cat is correlated with these states, so it > is also in a superposition of dead and alive. > > Brent >
I thought you might say this. OK, then what function does decoherence have in possibly solving the apparent paradox of a cat alive and dead simultaneously. TIA, AG -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/57509ef1-0729-43ef-bdee-3d1c154b682a%40googlegroups.com.
