Modern quantum mechanics is based on the Shrödinger equation (SE) with the Bohr-Copenhagen interpretation.
As far as I understand, SE creates its own independent world outside of classical mechanics or any other world of measurement and/or interaction.
The box itself, with a cat and a bomb inside, constitutes the separation or boundary between the QM world and the other worlds of measurement and interaction.
In other words, the box creates a pure quantum mechanical statistical system (world) with its own QM states where their linear superposition is possible.
And yet, there are many solutions for SEs where the essential box is poorly taken into account, how?
The box simply describes the fact that the system is in a superposition of states. It doesn't make sense to focus on the specific example-which is misleading. The reason is that it's not possible to define ``alive''/``dead'' unambiguously. It is possible to describe two-state systems, however.
What matters is that the Schrödinger equation describes the evolution of the wave function, which can describe any linear superposition of eigenfunctions of the Hamiltonian. This is the space of states of the quantum system. The space of states of the classical limit of a quantum system is significantly smaller and many people thought that the space of states of a quantum system was the space of states of its classical limit. That's wrong, mathematically and physically. Mathematically it's easy to understand why it's not possible to truncate the space of states of a quantum system; just, for a long time, it wasn't possible to do real experiments. Such experiments became technologically possible since the 1980s and they show, as expected, that the space of states of a quantum system does describe states that don't have a classical limit.
When you are not measuring, the state of the system is unkown, then we say we have a superposition of states.
It means ignorance, thats all.
I think that irreversible states (such as atomic decay) cannot be included in superposition. Because all states that are included in superposition must participate in “subquantum leapfrog”. Look
Preprint Subquantum leapfrog
I want to formulate it more precisely: irreversible states CAN enter a superposition, but when the system reaches such a state, the superposition immediately DISAPPEARS.
This is just an introductory approach to the most important unanswered question:
What would happen if the box was transparent?
My personal view is briefly as follows:
Modern quantum mechanics is based on the Shrödinger equation (SE) with the Bohr-Copenhagen interpretation.
It creates its own independent world extending throughout x-t space outside of classical mechanics or any other world of measurement and/or interaction.
And yet, there are many solutions for SEs where the essential box is poorly taken into account.
Indeed, the box itself is not part of modern QM but it is the ignorance of the state of the system which introduces QM.
Therefore, E. Schrödinger assumed that the box itself, containing a cat and a bomb inside, must be non-transparent to prevent photons carrying information about the state of the system from escaping into the world real.
In other words, the non-transparent box constitutes the separation or boundary between the QM world and the other worlds of measurement and interaction.
And yet, what would happen if the box was transparent?
This is equivalent to removing the box as a whole and hence we cannot create a pure quantum mechanical statistical system (world) with its own unknown QM states where their linear superposition is possible.
To be continued.
Ismail Abbas
it seems that the box plays the role of no measuring state. Based on Copen. interpretation when measurement is carried out the wave fun. is reduced. Then there would be something to prevent the observing the system such as a box. In transparent box one could observe the system and as a consequence the system collapses, so it needs to be non- transparent.
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