Cat state

In quantum mechanics, the cat state, named after Schrödinger's cat, is a quantum state composed of two diametrically opposed conditions at the same time, such as the possibilities that a cat is alive and dead at the same time. Generalizing Schrödinger's thought experiment, any other quantum superposition of two macroscopically distinct states is also referred to as a cat state. A cat state could be of one or more modes or particles, therefore it is not necessarily an entangled state. Such cat states have been experimentally realized in various ways and at various scales. Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger state Concretely, a cat state can refer to the possibility that multiple atoms be in a superposition of all spin up and all spin down, known as a Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger state (GHZ state), which is highly entangled. Since GHZ states are relatively difficult to produce but easy to verify they are often used as a benchmark for different platforms. Such a state for six atoms was realized by a team led by David Wineland at NIST in 2005 and the largest states have since grown to beyond 20. Optically, the GHZ state can be realized with several distinct photons in a superposition of all polarized vertically and all polarized horizontally. These have been experimentally realized by a team led by Pan Jianwei at University of Science and Technology of China, for instance, four-photon entanglement, five-photon entanglement, six-photon entanglement, eight-photon entanglement, and five-photon ten-qubit cat state. This spin up/down formulation was proposed by David Bohm, who conceived of spin as an observable in a version of thought experiments formulated in the 1935 EPR paradox. In quantum optics, a cat state is defined as the quantum superposition of two opposite-phase coherent states of a single optical mode (e.g., a quantum superposition of large positive electric field and large negative electric field): where and are coherent states defined in the number (Fock) basis.