Description
The measurement problem emerged in the late 1920s from the realization that the mathematical postulates of Quantum Mechanics, which entail unitarity and linearity, naturally lead to superpositions of macroscopic states. Some point out that it’s not clear how to interpret what an observation of such a state would be, while others state the problem lies in its being in tension with our experience of a world with definite outcomes.
Superpositions lead to interference. The non-observability of interference in certain situations is another aspect of the measurement problem. In fact, it is observed that interference patterns fade as the system size increases, not being seen in macroscopic objects. Also, taking as an example the double slit experiment, when which-path information is obtained with a detector, the interference pattern is no longer formed.
Textbooks normally follow the Copenhagen interpretation, which suggests that there is a wavefunction collapse upon measurement. However, it’s not clear what exactly constitutes a measurement, and, additionally, the collapse postulate violates unitarity. Furthermore, it introduces an irreversible process whose thermodynamic interpretation is unsettled. In this project, I explored a different approach in which the interactions with the environment play a crucial role. In fact, quantum systems are generally not isolated, and the entanglement between system and environment leads to loss of coherence between phases, which makes interference between superposed states unobservable.
| Field of Research/Work | Quantum Information, Science, and Technology |
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