Scientific article
OA Policy
English

How Difficult Is It to Prove the Quantumness of Macroscropic States?

Published inPhysical review letters, vol. 113, no. 09, 090403
Publication date2014
Abstract

General wisdom tells us that if two quantum states are “macroscopically distinguishable” then their superposition should be hard to observe. We make this intuition precise and general by quantifying the difficulty to observe the quantum nature of a superposition of two states that can be distinguished without microscopic accuracy. First, we quantify the distinguishability of any given pair of quantum states with measurement devices lacking microscopic accuracy, i.e., measurements suffering from limited resolution or limited sensitivity. Next, we quantify the required stability that has to be fulfilled by any measurement setup able to distinguish their superposition from a mere mixture. Finally, by establishing a relationship between the stability requirement and the “distinguishability with inaccurate measurements” of the two superposed states, we demonstrate that, indeed, the more distinguishable the states are, the more demanding the stability requirements.

Citation (ISO format)
SEKATSKI, Pavel, GISIN, Nicolas, SANGOUARD, Nicolas Bruno. How Difficult Is It to Prove the Quantumness of Macroscropic States? In: Physical review letters, 2014, vol. 113, n° 09, p. 090403. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.090403
Main files (1)
Article (Published version)
accessLevelPublic
Identifiers
Journal ISSN0031-9007
668views
344downloads

Technical informations

Creation03/10/2014 15:48:00
First validation03/10/2014 15:48:00
Update14/03/2023 21:49:12
Status update14/03/2023 21:49:12
Last indexation30/10/2024 20:13:43
All rights reserved by Archive ouverte UNIGE and the University of GenevaunigeBlack