In Alice in Wonderland, the Cheshire Cat can disappear leaving solely its grin behind. Physicists contemplate one thing analogous may exist in quantum mechanics when a particle could be separated from its properties, and the 2 journey on totally different paths. This quantum Cheshire cat impact defined that and different bizarre occasions like particles swapping disembodied properties. New analysis claims that what’s seen isn’t what’s truly taking place. There isn’t any quantum Cheshire cat impact in any respect.
In quantum mechanics, observations have an effect on the experiment. This has precipitated loads of weirdness, with experiments behaving otherwise whether or not they’re noticed or not. Researchers assume that the setup of the quantum Cheshire cat experiment produces the apparently paradoxical impact and that this disappears when a unique order of measurements is taken.
“Most folks know that quantum mechanics is bizarre, however figuring out what causes this weirdness continues to be an lively space of analysis. It has been slowly formalized right into a notion referred to as contextualize – that quantum methods change relying on what measurements you do on them,” lead creator Jonte Hance, a analysis fellow at Hiroshima University and the University of Bristol, mentioned in a press release.
Contextuality is essential in quantum mechanics and results in quantum methods which may seem wildly totally different and even mutually incompatible by doing totally different measurements on them. The reason for contextuality is unknown and the crew got down to examine utilizing the quantum Cheshire cat. In this manner, they discovered that the measurements had been key to producing the impact.
“We need to appropriate this by exhibiting that totally different outcomes are obtained if a quantum system is measured in several methods and that the unique interpretation of the quantum Cheshire cat solely comes about when you mix the outcomes of those totally different measurements in a really particular means, and ignore this measurement-related change,” mentioned Holger Hofmann, a professor at Hiroshima University.
The crew needs to analyze different results that seem paradoxical and see if they’re manifestations of contextuality. And from there perhaps even perceive how contextuality emerges within the first place.
“This is not going to solely assist us lastly clarify why quantum mechanics is so counterintuitive however may also assist us develop methods to make use of this weirdness for practical functions. Given that contextuality is inherently linked to situations the place there’s a quantum benefit over classical options to a given drawback, solely by understanding contextuality will we be capable to notice the total potential of, as an illustration, quantum computing,” mentioned Hance.
A paper discussing this analysis is printed within the New Journal of Physics.
