AAWSAP DIRD, Quantum Tomography of Negative Energy States in the Vacuum, January 2011

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0.2
0
-0.2
q
-4 '----­
-~---­
0 ,.______
/J
-0.2\
'--..
q
-5 -------~
-2.5
0
p
2.s"'-...._____
.....
5
Figure 7. Quantum Tomography of Schrodinger-Cat States. Top : q0 = 3. Two separated
coherent amplitudes (peaks) are clearly visible. Bottom: qo = 4. The larger the separation of the
amplitudes, the more rapid is the oscillation in t he quantum interference structure between the
two peaks. Negative probabilities appear within the quantum interference structure. The
experimental data used to reconstruct the depicted Wigner functions was provided by A. Furusawa
and H. Yonezawa, University of Tokyo.
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We digress for the moment to explain what Schrodinger cat states are. Schrodinger's
cat is a famous illustration of the principle of superposition in quantum theory that was
proposed as a thought experiment by Erwin Schrodinger in 1935 . Schrodinger's cat
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