Schrödinger's cat regard the "alive and dead" cat superposition as quite real. Intended as a critique of the Copenhagen interpretation (the prevailing orthodoxy in 1935), the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment remains a defining touchstone for modern interpretations of quantum mechanics. Physicists often use the way each interpretation deals with Schrödinger's cat as a way of illustrating and comparing the particular features, strengths, and weaknesses of each interpretation. Schrödinger wrote: Schrödinger's famous thought experiment poses the question, ""when" does a quantum system stop existing as a superposition of states and become one or the other?" (More technically, when does the actual quantum state
Supersymmetric quantum mechanics Supersymmetric quantum mechanics In theoretical physics, supersymmetric quantum mechanics is an area of research where mathematical concepts from high-energy physics are applied to the field of quantum mechanics. Understanding the consequences of supersymmetry has proven mathematically daunting, and it has likewise been difficult to develop theories that could account for symmetry breaking, "i.e.", the lack of observed partner particles of equal mass. To make progress on these problems, physicists developed "supersymmetric quantum mechanics", an application of the supersymmetry (SUSY) superalgebra to quantum mechanics as opposed to quantum field theory. It was hoped that studying SUSY's consequences in this simpler setting