After the box is closed, the cat is said to be in a state of superposition of |dead> and |alive>. Now the person carrying out the experimnt peep into the box and find that the cat is alive. So, it is said that the act of looking causes the wavefunction of the cat to collapse and, in this case, it collapse to the |alive> state. When the box is closed again, the wave function of the cat starts to smear out and after a while one would say the cat is back to the superposition state of |dead> and |alive> again. Intuitively, this cycle can be repeated over and over again as long as the cat is still alive.
Now, if the person peep into the box and saw the cat dead. It is said that the act of looking caused the state of the cat to collapse to the |dead> state. But if the box is closed back, can one say that the cat is back to the state of |dead> and |alive>? If so, could it be possible that the next time someone peep into the box, the cat is back alive? If not, why is the there an asymmetry?
2007-03-16
18:38:36
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3 answers
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asked by
sh
1
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Physics