Entanglement, Decoherence and the Quantum/Classical Boundary

Abstract

Quantum mechanics is very puzzling. A particle can be delocalized, it can be simultaneously in several energy states and it can even have several different identities at once. This schizophrenic behavior is encoded in its wavefunction, which can always be written as a superposition of quantum states, each characterized by a complex probability amplitude. Interferences between these amplitudes occur when the particle can follow several indistinguishable paths. Any attempt to determine which trajectory it “actually takes” destroys these interferences. This is a manifestation of wave—particle complementarity, which has recently been illustrated in textbook fashion by several beautiful experiments.