Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI)
Co-Investigators
Caslav Brukner, University of Vienna
Keith Schwab, Cornell University
Vlatko Vedral, Leeds University
Anton Zeilinger, IQOQI
Project Title
Expolring Physical Realism - Experiments on the Foundations & Limits of Quantum Physics
Project Summary
Two important fundamental questions are presently left unanswered by physics: "Why the quantum?" and "Why the classical?" The first question arises from our inability to provide a simple epistemological basis for quantum phenomena, above all quantum superposition and entanglement. Different interpretations claim to provide an explanation for the same phenomena and are yet founded on fully incompatible principles. A well-known example is the striking contradiction between the underlying assumptions of the Copenhagen interpretation and the realistic model of Bohm. The second question addresses the yet unresolved problem whether classicality can emerge from a quantum physical description of the world. Conceptual difficulties arise when quantum physics is applied consequently to increasingly massive and complex systems. Schrodinger's famous "cat"-example was the first to point out the dramatic, contra-intuitive consequences of the possibility of macroscopic entanglement for our understanding of the world.
Our research aims to provide a better understanding of the nature of physical reality based on these two fundamental questions. We will both explore the consequences of a realistic description of the quantum world and test experimentally to which extent the present boundary between the quantum and the classical world can be exploited - if it exists at all.
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