Defense Intelligence Reference Document Quantum Tomography Of Negative Energy States In The Vacuum

UNCLASSIFIED/ ,'F811. 8Fflli1Ale lal!i! 8111!1/
serves to demonstrate the apparent conflict of what quantum theory tells us is true
about the nature and behavior of matter on the quantum (atomic or subatomic) level
compared with what we actually observe to be true about the nature and behavior of
matter on the macroscopic level.
Schr6dinger's thought experiment is as follows: One places a living cat into a steel
chamber along with a device containing a vial of hydrocyanic acid. There is also a very
small amount of a radioactive substance inside the chamber. If even a single atom of
the substance decays during the test period, then a relay mechanism will trip a
hammer, which will in turn break the vial and kill the cat.
The observer cannot know whether or not an atom of the radioactive substance has
decayed, and consequently, cannot know whether the vial has been broken, the
hydrocyanic acid released, and the cat killed. Since one cannot know, the cat is both
dead and alive in a superposition of quantum states according to the quantum
superposition principle. It is only when one breaks open the box and learns the
condition of the cat that the superposition is lost, and the cat becomes either dead or
alive. This situation is sometimes called quantum indeterminacy or the observer's
paradox: the act of observation or measurement itself affects the outcome, so that the
outcome as such does not exist unless, and until, the measurement is made. (That is,
there is no single outcome unless it is observed.)
According to the fundamental superposition principle of quantum mechanics, we are
entitled to think of quantum superpositions of coherent states. These are states that
contain simultaneously two coherent components (or states), one pointing in one
direction in phase space and the other pointing in another direction. We label the
former component the "alive-cat" state and the latter component the "dead-cat state."
The position wave function 4' of such a state would be the superposition of two
coherent state (Gaussian) wave functions [38]:
(11)
The normalization factor has been omitted in Eq. (11) because it is not important here.
Equation (11) shows that 4' has two peaks, one at +qo (alive-cat state) and the other at
-qo (dead-cat state) according to the superimposed coherent amplitudes. Also, Eq.
(11) has nothing to do with optical interference. When two fields interfere, their
amplitude may be enhanced or canceled, producing, for example, coherent states of
enhanced or zero amplitude (vacuum). The quantum superposition shown in Eq. (11)
still contains both coherent amplitudes ±qo. It is also much different from an
incoherent superposition of ±qo, where the field has either the amplitude +qo or the
amplitude -qo with certain probabilities. The quadrature amplitude of 4' is +qo as well
as -qo (simultaneously!), with a resolution given by the vacuum fluctuations.
This strange behavior of 4' being simultaneously at +qo and -qo turns out to be the best
representation of Schr6dinger's famous thought experiment in the quantum field theory
of light. Schr6dinger cat states are difficult to observe in the optical domain because
23
UNCLASSIFIED//FQA: QFFI&l11J.k W&liii Q•lklf