How Knowledge Can Lead to the Demise of Schrodinger’s Cat Through a Negative Measurement/Null Measurement (A Quantum Mechanical Measurement in Which There is No Physical Interaction Between a Physical Measuring Apparatus and the System Measured)

The Schrodinger cat experiment (SCE) is presented. An alteration follows where the LACK of radioactive decay leads to the demise of the cat instead of the ACT of radioactive decay. The lack of radioactive decay is a negative (null) measurement (nm) (where there is NO physical interaction between the radioactive material (rm) and the Geiger counter). The negative measurement is non-trivial because all knowledge about the radioactive material (rm) is derived from its associated wave function which itself has no physical existence. The wave function is how we make probabilistic predictions regarding systems in quantum mechanics. Before the box in the SCE is opened, the wave function for the rm is: psi_rm = 1/√2 [psi_rm does not decay + psi_rm does decay] which leads to the possibility of interference before the cat is observed. As Schrodinger wrote: “The psi_function of the entire system [including radioactive material and cat] would express this by having in it the living and the dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts.” The wave function is the foundation for knowledge since the probabilities are derived from the wave function and the wave function contains all the information concerning a system. This alteration of the SCE underscores that the LACK of radioactive decay in the original SCE is also a negative measurement that leads to the continued life of the cat.