Discrete-event simulation unmasks the quantum Cheshire Cat

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that discrete-event simulation can accurately replicate neutron interferometry experiments and offers a cause-and-effect explanation of the quantum Cheshire cat effect without quantum paradoxes.

Contribution

It introduces a classical simulation approach that reproduces quantum experimental data and clarifies the phenomenon without quantum paradoxes.

Findings

Discrete-event simulation matches experimental data

Provides a cause-and-effect explanation of the quantum Cheshire cat

Weak-measurement theory is ineffective for explaining the effect

Abstract

It is shown that discrete-event simulation accurately reproduces the experimental data of a single-neutron interferometry experiment [T. Denkmayr {\sl et al.}, Nat. Commun. 5, 4492 (2014)] and provides a logically consistent, paradox-free, cause-and-effect explanation of the quantum Cheshire cat effect without invoking the notion that the neutron and its magnetic moment separate. Describing the experimental neutron data using weak-measurement theory is shown to be useless for unravelling the quantum Cheshire cat effect.