Die gegenwartige Situation in der Quantemechanik
"You are the only contemporary physicist, besides Laue, who sees that one cannot get around the assumption of reality—if only one is honest. Most of them simply do not see what sort of risky game they are playing with reality—reality as something independent of what is experimentally established. Their interpretation is, however, refuted most elegantly by your system of radioactive atom + amplifier + charge of gun powder + cat in a box, in which the psi-function of the system contains both the cat alive and blown to bits. Nobody really doubts that the presence or absence of the cat is something independent of the act of observation." -Albert Einstein in a letter to Schrodinger
FIRST EDITION of the "Schrodinger's cat" thought experiment, arguably the most celebrated and influential illustration of the paradoxes of quantum theory.
"In the 1930s quantum theory pioneer Erwin Schrödinger proposed his famous thought experiment, in which a cat in a closed box appears to be both alive and dead at the same time until someone observes it, as a demonstration of the philosophical paradoxes involved in quantum theory. The possibility of the experiment's actually being done could have far-reaching effects on the heated philosophical debate about the meaning of quantum theory. On the practical side, atoms held in two different superposed quantum states could serve as logic elements in quantum computers, which might be able to make use of the superpositions to carry out many calculations simultaneously" (Britannica).
"This is only a thought experiment, and no cat has ever been put through such indignities. But if the Copenhagen interpretation is correct, everything remains in limbo until an intelligent observer looks into the chamber. At that point, the superposition collapses and the cat becomes either dead or alive. Until somebody looks, the situation is described in Schrodinger's own words as 'having in it the living and the dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts'. This bizarre picture encouraged some physicists to seek alternative interpretations of quantum mechanics, eventually with considerable success" (Gribbin, Q is for Quantum).
In: Die Naturwissenschaften, Vol. 23, pp. 807-812, 823-828 and 844-849 [complete volume offered]. Berlin: Julius Springer, 1935. Quarto, contemporary three-quarter cloth over marbled boards; paper spine labels. A few scuffs to binding. A fine copy.
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