Volume 16: Pages 405-407, 2003

Schrödinger's Cat Paradox and the Will Increment

Richard L. Liboff

Schools of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics and Center for Applied Mathematics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 U.S.A.

A Hamiltonian formalism for the Schrödinger's cat problem is outlined as well as the concept of quantum reversibility. It is noted that a characteristic of a dead animal is the absence of will. It is argued that this entity is not amenable to reversible Hamiltonian dynamics but may be represented as an infinitesimal complex component of the Hamiltonian that destroys its hermiticity and the reversibility of the Schrödinger equation. It follows that the process in which the eigenfunction representing the live state of the cat transforms to the eigenfunction of the dead state of the cat is not reversible. A discussion of Schrödinger's cat states is included.

Keywords: Schrödinger's cat, Hamiltonian, quantum mechanics, eigenfunction, Hamiltonian, will increment, entangled states

Received: September 16, 2003; Published online: December 15, 2008