On Schr\"odinger's cat

TL;DR

This paper critically examines the conceptual interpretations of Schrödinger's cat thought experiment, questioning the roles of observation, entanglement, and the states of the atom and cat within quantum mechanics.

Contribution

It challenges traditional realist and positivist views, exploring alternative perspectives on the entanglement and state definitions of the atom and cat.

Findings

Questions the necessity of observer in quantum state determination

Proposes alternative interpretations of entanglement and decay states

Highlights ambiguities in the conceptual understanding of Schrödinger's cat

Abstract

Schr\"odinger's cat appears to have been harassed in a chamber during the past eighty years or so by interpreting the role of the observer as a person, who sets an experiment and then observes results, may be after some time. The realist position tells us that the physical processes would take place independent of the observer with well defined properties, whereas the positivist position wants us to believe that nothing can be said of a system when it is not being observed. In this paper we question both these positions and also the assumption that the atom and the cat are entangled and further whether the atom could be considered to be in a state of decay and not decay. We let the cat either out of the bag (chamber) or rest in peace with or without the atom or the observer.