How the quantum Zeno effect impacts Schroedinger's cat
Washington University In St. Louis
Credit: Washington University in St. Louis You’ve probably heard about Schrödinger’s cat, which famously is trapped in a box with a mechanism that is activated if a radioactive atom decays, releasing radiation. The delay is known as the quantum Zeno effect and the acceleration as the quantum anti-Zeno effect. What is measurement, anyway? Would the atom still exhibit the Zeno and anti-Zeno effects? To test the role of measurement in the Zeno effects, they devised a new type of measurement interaction that disturbs the atom but learns nothing about its state, which they call a quasimeasurement.