Violation of smooth observable macroscopic realism in a harmonic oscillator

We study the emergence of macrorealism in a harmonic oscillator subject to consecutive measurements of a squeezed action. Since the harmonic oscillator dynamics admits a hidden trajectory formulation, the assumptions of macrorealism are violated only by the measurement process. We demonstrate a brea...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inarXiv.org
Main Authors Leshem, Amir, Gat, Omri
Format Paper Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 05.08.2009
Subjects
Harmonic oscillators
Oscillators
Photons
Physics - Quantum Physics
Quantum theory
Realism
Subsystems
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Summary:We study the emergence of macrorealism in a harmonic oscillator subject to consecutive measurements of a squeezed action. Since the harmonic oscillator dynamics admits a hidden trajectory formulation, the assumptions of macrorealism are violated only by the measurement process. We demonstrate a breakdown of macrorealism in a wide parameter range that is maximized in a scaling limit of extreme squeezing. A semiclassical analysis shows that macrorealism is violated even with measurements of classically smooth observables that do not resolve quantum levels. We propose an experimental test of macrorealism with entangled photons by demonstrating that local realism in a composite system implies macrorealism in a subsystem.
Bibliography:SourceType-Working Papers-1
ObjectType-Working Paper/Pre-Print-1
content type line 50
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.0902.0866