Preamble

Abstract

Classical physics describes our everyday world very accurately and has done so for the past centuries. However, when we look very closely, that is, on the scale of molecules and atoms, things start to behave differently and we have to use a physical description that has become known as quantum theory. This theory was devised in the first half of the Twentieth century and has been successful at predicting experimental outcomes with unprecedented precision, leading to many new inventions without which the modern computer age, for example, would be unthinkable. Quantum effects however have remained elusive, only being observable in the microscopic world and the study of quantum behavior of truly macroscopic systems has remained a long outstanding research goal of modern physics. Observing such effects would help to answer some of the most fundamental questions in quantum physics today: Why is the world around us classical and not quantum? Is there a size- or mass-limit to systems for them to behave according to quantum mechanics? Is quantum theory complete or do we have to extend it to include mechanisms such as decoherence? Can we use the quantum nature of macroscopic objects to, for example, improve the measurement precision of classical apparatuses?