Quantum mechanics in the real world, door to infinite possibilities, or just a blurred vision of theoretical physicists?
Quantum mechanics in the real world, door to
infinite possibilities, or just a blurred vision of theoretical physicists?
Almost everyone on this earth has had a very simple question tickling in their brains since the dawn of humanity. The question, if put much simpler than the physicists took it, can be put as the following; What’s the reality of our existence?
If we don’t take into account, the unprecedented and unreal nightmares faced by the theoretical physicists trying to answer this question, we can, however, paraphrase Greek philosopher Democritus’ atomic theory as a simpler answer to our very simple query about reality. But a sad truth about reality is that it’s not that simple at all. Thus, after a long quest of almost 2500 years, the minority of people really committed to answering such questions (Theoretical Physicists) came up with a new way to answer the reality of our existence. They came up with a new theory of physics christened as the Quantum theory, Quantum mechanics, or Quantum physics.
Whereas
the more popular branches and theories of physics were made to define the
macroscopic objects of the universe, quantum mechanics bothered its laws for
defining the most microscopic objects of the universe.
Among many other proposed interpretations of quantum mechanics, one of the oldest and most taught ones is the Copenhagen Interpretation largely devised from 1925 to 1927 by Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg. According to the Copenhagen interpretation, physical systems generally do not have definite properties prior to being measured, and quantum mechanics can only predict the probability distribution of a given measurement's possible results. The act of measurement affects the system, causing the set of probabilities to reduce to only one of the possible values immediately after the measurement. This feature is known as ‘Wave function collapse’ and the corresponding different possible outcomes are named as ‘Superpositions’ in the quantum mechanics lingo.
A living cat is placed into a steel chamber
along with a hammer, a vial of hydrocyanic acid, and a very small amount of
radioactive substance. If even a single atom of the radioactive substance
decays during the test period, a relay mechanism will trip the hammer, which
will, in turn, break the vial of poisonous gas and cause the cat to die.
In the experiment, the observer cannot know
whether or not an atom of the substance has decayed and consequently, does not
know whether the vial has broken and the cat has been killed. According to
quantum mechanics, this is called the quantum indeterminacy or the observer’s
paradox. Erwin Schrodinger designed the experiment to show what the Copenhagen
interpretation would look like if the mathematical terminology was replaced by
macroscopic terms and how it would be visualized and understood by the unaided
human eye. We accept the fact that the term ‘superposition’ exists by studying
interference in light waves. Now, Let’s take another look at our experiment.
What about that exact moment when the resolution of possibilities actually take
place? Is it logical for observation to be the trigger, wouldn’t the cat be
either dead or alive even if not observed?
The decay of the radioactive substance is
governed by the laws of quantum mechanics. This means the atoms start in a
combined state of both ‘Going to decay’ or ‘Not going to decay’. If we apply
the observer driven idea to such a case, there is actually no conscious
observer present (Of course everything is in a sealed steel box), so the whole
system stays as a combination of possibilities. The cat ends up both dead and
alive at the same time. And because of the fact that the existence of a
superpositioned cat is absurd and is impossible in the real world, this thought
experiment shows us that wave function collapses are not just driven by
conscious observers. Although, This superposition of states leads us to modern
technology.AN electron near the nucleus of an atom exists in a spread out,
wave-like orbit. Bring two atoms close together, and the electrons don’t need
to choose one atom but are shared between them. This is how some chemical bonds
form. An electron in a molecule isn’t on just atom A or atom B, but A+B. As we
try to add more and more atoms, the electrons spread out more, shared between
vast numbers of atoms at the same time. The electrons in a solid aren’t bound
to a particular atom but shared among all of them, extending over a large range
of space. This gigantic superposition of states determines the ways electrons move
through the material, whether it’s a conductor or an insulator or a
semiconductor. Understanding how electrons are shared among atoms allows us to
precisely control the properties of semiconductor materials like silicon.
Combining different semiconductors in the right way allows us to make
transistors on a tiny scale and eventually millions on a single computer chip.
Those chips and their spread-out electrons power the computer we use today. An
old joke says that the internet exists to share cat videos. At a very deep
level though, the internet owes its existence to this Austrian physicist and
his imaginary cat.
Schrodinger’s cat was not a real experiment and
therefore did not prove anything scientifically. It’s not even part of any
definite scientific theory. It was a simply laid out teaching tool to
illustrate how simple misinterpretations of the quantum theory could lead to
absurd results impossible in the aspect of the real world. But, Till today this
observer driven idea remains an important question in the field of quantum
physics and is an endless source of speculation and conjecture in ‘Quantum
Computing’ and pop culture.
Written by,
Muhtasim Hasan SIndeed
Mirzapur Cadet College
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