Recent studies challenge the quantum Cheshire cat effect’s initial interpretation, highlighting the role of contextuality in quantum mechanics. This research suggests that the perceived separation of particles and their properties is a result of how quantum systems are measured, not an actual physical phenomenon. Understanding this could unlock new insights into quantum mechanics and its applications. Credit: SciTechDaily.com
What actually happens is much weirder, and may help us understand more about quantum mechanics.
The quantum Cheshire cat effect draws its name from the fictional Cheshire Cat in the Alice in Wonderland story. That cat was able to disappear, leaving only its grin behind. Similarly, in a 2013 paper, researchers claimed quantum particles are able to separate from their properties, with the properties traveling along paths the particle cannot. They named this the quantum Cheshire cat effect. Researchers since have claimed to extend this further, swapping disembodied properties between particles, disembodying multiple properties simultaneously, and even “separating the wave-particle duality” of a particle.
Contextuality in Quantum Mechanics
However, recent research, published recently in the New Journal of Physics, shows that these experiments don’t actually show particles splitting from their properties, but instead display another counterintuitive feature of quantum mechanics — contextuality.
Quantum mechanics is the study of the behavior of light and matter at the atomic and subatomic scale. By its nature, quantum mechanics is counterintuitive. The research team set out to fundamentally understand this counterintuitive nature, while exploring practical benefits.
“Most people know that quantum mechanics is weird, but identifying what causes this weirdness is still an active area of research. It has been slowly formalized into a notion called contextuality — that quantum systems change depending on what measurements you do on them,” said Jonte Hance, a research fellow at Hiroshima University and the University of Bristol.
The simple interferometer used in the quantum Cheshire cat scenario, where a photon is prepared in the path-polarization entangled state ECC, but is only considered if it arrives on output path + with polarization D. The paradox arises when we consider the photon’s path, polarization, and path-polarization correlation, while it is inside the interferometer. Credit: Jonte R Hance et al 2023 New J. Phys. 25 113028
A sequence of measurements on a quantum system will produce different results depending on the order in which the measurements are done. For instance, if we measure where a particle is, and then how fast it is traveling, this will give different results to first measuring how fast it travels, and then where it is. Because of this contextuality, quantum systems can be measured as having properties that we would expect to be mutually incompatible.
“However, we still don’t really understand what causes this, so this is what we wanted to investigate, using the paradoxical quantum Cheshire cat scenario as a testbed,” said Hance.
Redefining the Quantum Cheshire Cat
The team notes that the problem with the quantum Cheshire cat paradox is that its original claim, that the particle and its property, such as spin or polarization, separate and travel along different paths, may be a misleading representation of the actual physics of the situation.
“We want to correct this by showing that different results are obtained if a quantum system is measured in different ways, and that the original interpretation of the quantum Cheshire cat only comes about if you combine the results of these different measurements in a very specific way, and ignore this measurement-related change,” said Holger Hofmann, a professor at Hiroshima University.
The team analyzed the Cheshire cat protocol by examining the relation between three different measurements regarding the path and polarization of a photon within the quantum Cheshire cat protocol. These would have seemed to result in a logical contradiction, were the system not contextual.
Their paper discusses how this contextual behavior links to weak values, and the coherences between prohibited states. Through their work, they showed that instead of a property of the particle being disembodied, the quantum Cheshire cat instead demonstrates the effects of these coherences, typically found in pre- and post-selected systems.
Future Research and Quantum Contextuality
Looking ahead the team wants to expand this research, to find a way to unify paradoxical quantum effects as manifestations of contextuality, and to explain once and for all how and why measurements change quantum systems.
“This will not only help us finally explain why quantum mechanics is so counterintuitive, but will also help us develop ways to use this weirdness for practical purposes. Given contextuality is inherently linked to scenarios where there is a quantum advantage over classical solutions to a given problem, only by understanding contextuality will we be able to realize the full potential of, for instance, quantum computing,” said Hance.
Reference: “Contextuality, coherences, and quantum Cheshire cats” by Jonte R Hance, Ming Ji and Holger F Hofmann, 17 November 2023, New Journal of Physics.
DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/ad0bd4
The research team includes Jonte R. Hance, Ming Ji, and Holger F. Hofmann from the Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Hiroshima University. Hance is also a research associate in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Bristol.
The research was funded by Hiroshima University’s Phoenix Postdoctoral Fellowship for Research, the University of York’s EPSRC DTP grant, the Quantum Communications Hub that is funded by EPSRC grants, and a JST SPRING grant.
This research suggests that the perceived separation of particles and their properties is a result of how quantum systems are measured, not an actual physical phenomenon. This is very good.
According to topological vortex gravitational field theory, observation and measurement are also one of the ways of interaction.
Electrons are a particle that is summoned from a soup of electrons. Is it electromagnetism that lets them appear here momentarily? Are the electrons we measure the same as we measured a split second ago as they are not in the same place? These were the questions that got me started thinking.
Electrons are the key they are in QL soup mostly out of spacetime. They are like puzzle pieces that fit but there are many pieces floating around that will fit. They stay in the QL soup until they are summoned by measuring. We see electrons popping into atoms to maintain the balance. When we fire an election it causes ripples in the waiting candidates, this is why we see an interference pattern from the double slit experiment. If we measure after it is fired we establish a vector so only the electrons along this vector can hit the wall. This entanglement would explain the particle wave quandary. If this is the case what else is in the soup. Entanglement has been shown to be instantaneous the soup being outside of spacetime is subject to other rules.