In other words, physicists built an expanded family of quantum superposition based on exotic quantum states. What\u2019s more, the new method gives researchers a greater degree of freedom in working with the quantum world.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though physicists have been thinking about quantum superpositions for more than a century, we are still finding new ways to create, control, and understand them,\u201d said Saner, physicist at Oxford University in the U.K.<\/p>\n
Either or neither <\/p>\n
According to an explainer<\/a> by the California Institute of Technology, Schr\u00f6dinger intended the cat experiment to \u201cdemonstrate what he saw as the absurdity of quantum science.\u201d Indeed, there\u2019s something odd about the idea of anything\u2014never mind a cat\u2014being dead and alive at the same time, just because we can\u2019t \u201csee\u201d and confirm it\u2019s either one.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is obviously a dramatic example, but it captures something real about quantum mechanics,\u201d Saner said. \u201cThe important point is that a superposition is not just ordinary uncertainty. It is not simply that we do not know which state the system is in.\u201d<\/p>\n These possibilities are linked according to \u201cvery precise\u201d patterns in quantum mechanics, he added, and they can interfere with one another like waves. This property is central to experiments in quantum optics, in which a \u201ccat state\u201d typically refers to a superposition of two distinct oscillator states.<\/p>\n The theory is alive <\/p>\n
![\"Superposed](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/superposed-wigner-crystal.jpg\")
An example of a reconstructed superposition state. Credit: Oxford University <\/p>\n