Resolving the problem of definite outcomes of measurements

Art Hobson

Published 2016-02-11Version 1

The entangled "Schrodinger's cat" state of a quantum and its measurement apparatus is not a superposition of quantum states but is instead a non-paradoxical superposition of nonlocal correlations between quantum states. This elucidation of entanglement is demonstrated by experiments conducted in 1990 using entangled photon pairs. Thus the Schrodinger's cat state does not predict a dead-and-alive cat. Instead of indefinite superpositions, it predicts indeterminate but definite outcomes. When a superposed quantum entangles with a measurement apparatus, the composite system instantly collapses locally to incoherent mixtures of definite outcomes of the quantum and of the apparatus, while the global superposition of correlations maintains its unitary evolution. This transfer of coherence from the quantum system to correlations between the system and its measuring apparatus is the reason instantaneous local collapse can occur upon measurement without interrupting the smooth global evolution that follows Schrodinger's equation. Objections to this resolution (namely improper density operators, and basis ambiguity) are rebutted.