Violation of smooth observable macroscopic realism in a harmonic oscillator

Authors: Amir Leshem, Omri Gat

(Submitted on 5 Feb 2009)

Abstract: We study the emergence of macrorealism in a harmonic oscillator subject to consecutive measurements of a squeezed action. Since the harmonic oscillator dynamics admits a hidden trajectory formulation, the assumptions of macrorealism are violated only by the measurement process. We demonstrate a breakdown of macrorealism in a wide parameter range that is maximized in a scaling limit of extreme squeezing. A semiclassical analysis shows that macrorealism is violated even with measurements of classically smooth observables that do not resolve quantum levels. We propose an experimental test of macrorealism with entangled photons by demonstrating that local realism in a composite system implies macrorealism in a subsystem.