Review and suggested resolution of the problem of Schrodinger's cat

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the Schrödinger's cat paradox, proposing that the measurement state is a superposition of correlations rather than a macroscopic superposition, thus resolving the paradox of definite outcomes within standard quantum theory.

Contribution

It offers a novel interpretation that the measurement state is a phase-dependent superposition of correlations, not a paradoxical superposition, clarifying the measurement problem.

Findings

Measurement state is a superposition of correlations, not a macroscopic superposition.

Schrödinger's cat is a non-paradoxical macroscopic correlation.

The interpretation resolves the problem of definite outcomes within standard quantum theory.

Abstract

This paper reviews and suggests a resolution of the problem of definite outcomes of measurement. This problem, also known as "Schrodinger's cat," has long posed an apparent paradox because the state resulting from a measurement appears to be a quantum superposition in which the detector is in two macroscopically distinct states (alive and dead in the case of the cat) simultaneously. Many alternative interpretations of the quantum mathematical formalism, and several alternative modifications of the theory, have been proposed to resolve this problem, but no consensus has formed supporting any one of them. Applying standard quantum theory to the measurement state, together with the analysis and results of decades of nonlocality experiments with pairs of entangled systems, this paper shows the entangled measurement state is not a paradoxical macroscopic superposition of states. It is instead a phase-dependent superposition of correlations between states of the subsystems. Thus Schrodinger's cat is a non-paradoxical "macroscopic correlation" in which one of the two correlated systems happens to be a detector. This insight resolves the problem of definite outcomes but it does not entirely resolve the measurement problem because the entangled state is still reversible.