Resolving Schrodinger's cat

TL;DR

This paper clarifies that Schrödinger's cat state is a nonlocal correlation superposition, resolving the paradox by emphasizing the role of correlations rather than superpositions of individual states.

Contribution

It provides a new interpretation of entangled states, showing they are nonlocal superpositions of correlations, not superpositions of subsystem states, thus resolving the Schrödinger's cat paradox.

Findings

Entangled states are nonlocal superpositions of correlations.

Post-measurement states are coherent superpositions of correlations.

The Schrödinger's cat paradox is not paradoxical under this interpretation.

Abstract

Schrodinger's famous cat has long been misunderstood. According to quantum theory and experiments with entangled systems, an entangled state such as the Schrodinger's cat state is neither a superposition of states of either subsystem nor a superposition of compound states of the composite system, but rather a nonlocal superposition of correlations between pairs of states of the two subsystems. The entangled post-measurement state that results from an ideal measurement is not paradoxical, but is merely a coherent superposition of two statistical correlations at "zero phase angle," i.e. at 100% positive correlation. Thus the state of the radioactive nucleus and Schrodinger's cat is as follows: an undecayed nucleus is 100% positively correlated with an alive cat, and (i.e. superposed with) a decayed nucleus is 100% positively correlated with a dead cat. The superposition consists merely in the fact that both correlations are simultaneously true. Despite many published statements to the contrary, this superposition is not paradoxical. It is in fact what one expects intuitively.