Sunday, October 14, 2018

quantum mechanics - Will there be two cats in the box (superposition) if I use virtual particles (magnetic field) to open the box in Schrodinger's experiment?


I have read this question:


How does a Wavefunction collapse?


Where annav says:





More specifically, what conditions cause a wavefunction for a quantum particle to collapse?


A measurement, i.e. interaction with particles on mass shell in a Feynman diagram ( real in contrast to virtual which are a mathematical tool). An instance picked from the predicted probability distribution of the wavefunction squared.




Now I was wondering, if I use a magnetic field to open the box of Schrodinger's cat experiment, that is made up (interacts with) of virtual particles.


Since the box only interacts in this case with the magnetic field, and the magnetic field interacts (with the box) with virtual particles, the wavefunction should not collapse.


Yes I get it, the collapse is just a fancy expression, nothing collapses, it just means that a measurement was made on the QM system (the box).


But in this case, I make the measurement (the interaction with virtual particles), so the wavefunction should not collapse (meaning the QM system remains in superposition).



This question is not specific for the Schrodinger experiment, it could be any QM experiment, the bottom line is whether using a magnetic field (that interacts with virtual particles) to make the measurement causes the QM system to remain in superposition or not?


Question:




  1. if I open the box with a magnetic field (that interacts with virtual particles), will that collapse the wavefunction or will the QM system remain in superposition?




  2. will there be two cats in the box (superposition)? if the statement is true, and virtual particles will not collapse the wavefunction, will the cats stay in superposition?







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