Towards Quantum Superposition of Living Organisms Export

@article{citeulike:5757591, abstract = {The most striking feature of quantum mechanics is the existence ofsuperposition states, where an object appears to be in different situations atthe same time. The existence of such states has been tested with small objects,like atoms, ions, electrons and photons, and even with molecules. Morerecently, it has been possible to create superpositions of collections ofphotons, atoms, or Cooper pairs. Current progress in optomechanical systems maysoon allow us to create superpositions of even larger objects, like micro-sizedmirrors or cantilevers, and thus to test quantum mechanical phenomena at largerscales. Here we propose a method to cool down and create quantum superpositionsof the motion of sub-wavelength, arbitrarily shaped dielectric objects trappedinside a high--finesse cavity at a very low pressure. Our method is ideallysuited for the smallest living organisms, such as viruses, which survive underlow vacuum pressures, and optically behave as dielectric objects. This opens upthe possibility of testing the quantum nature of living organisms by creatingquantum superposition states in very much the same spirit as the originalSchr\"odinger's cat "gedanken" paradigm. We anticipate our essay to be astarting point to experimentally address fundamental questions, such as therole of life and consciousness in quantum mechanics.}, archivePrefix = {arXiv}, author = {Romero-Isart, Oriol and Juan, Mathieu L. and Quidant, Romain and Cirac, J. Ignacio}, citeulike-article-id = {5757591}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://arxiv.org/abs/0909.1469}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://arxiv.org/pdf/0909.1469}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=2009arXiv0909.1469R}, day = {17}, eprint = {0909.1469}, journal = {ArXiv e-prints}, keywords = {quantum\_mechanics, quantum\_superposition}, month = {Sep}, posted-at = {2009-10-25 17:09:04}, priority = {2}, title = {Towards Quantum Superposition of Living Organisms}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/0909.1469}, year = {2009} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:5757591 L3 - citeulike-article-id:5757591 N2 - The most striking feature of quantum mechanics is the existence ofsuperposition states, where an object appears to be in different situations atthe same time. The existence of such states has been tested with small objects,like atoms, ions, electrons and photons, and even with molecules. Morerecently, it has been possible to create superpositions of collections ofphotons, atoms, or Cooper pairs. Current progress in optomechanical systems maysoon allow us to create superpositions of even larger objects, like micro-sizedmirrors or cantilevers, and thus to test quantum mechanical phenomena at largerscales. Here we propose a method to cool down and create quantum superpositionsof the motion of sub-wavelength, arbitrarily shaped dielectric objects trappedinside a high--finesse cavity at a very low pressure. Our method is ideallysuited for the smallest living organisms, such as viruses, which survive underlow vacuum pressures, and optically behave as dielectric objects. This opens upthe possibility of testing the quantum nature of living organisms by creatingquantum superposition states in very much the same spirit as the originalSchr\"odinger's cat "gedanken" paradigm. We anticipate our essay to be astarting point to experimentally address fundamental questions, such as therole of life and consciousness in quantum mechanics. JF - ArXiv e-prints TI - Towards Quantum Superposition of Living Organisms KW - quantum_mechanics KW - quantum_superposition AU - Romero-Isart, Oriol AU - Juan, Mathieu AU - Quidant, Romain AU - Cirac, Ignacio PY - 2009/Sep/17/ UR - http://arxiv.org/abs/0909.1469 ER -