Schrodinger's famous cat has long been misunderstood. According to quantum
theory and experiments with entangled systems, an entangled state such as the
Schrodinger's cat state is neither a superposition of states of either
subsystem nor a superposition of compound states of the composite system, but
rather a nonlocal superposition of correlations between pairs of states of the
two subsystems. The entangled post-measurement state that results from an ideal
measurement is not paradoxical, but is merely a coherent superposition of two
statistical correlations at "zero phase angle," i.e. at 100% positive
correlation. Thus the state of the radioactive nucleus and Schrodinger's cat is
as follows: an undecayed nucleus is 100% positively correlated with an alive
cat, and (i.e. superposed with) a decayed nucleus is 100% positively correlated
with a dead cat. The superposition consists merely in the fact that both
correlations are simultaneously true. Despite many published statements to the
contrary, this superposition is not paradoxical. It is in fact what one expects
intuitively.Comment: 3 figure