Quantum wave function collapse is not instantaneous Shutterstock / peterschreiber.media
The collapse of the quantum wave function – in which quantum objects go from existing within many possible states at once to settling into a concrete one understood by classical physics – does not happen instantaneously, directly challenging a long-standing textbook understanding of quantum physics.
The most notorious example of this phenomenon is Erwin Schrödinger’s thought experiment where a cat in a box is in a quantum state of both “dead” and “alive” at the same time. Opening the box and looking at the cat – measuring the system – “collapses”…
