Dictionary

macroscopicity en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *meh₂ḱ- Proto-Indo-European *-rós Proto-Indo-European *mh₂ḱrós Proto-Hellenic *makrós Ancient Greek μᾰκρός (măkrós)der. French macro-der. English macro- Proto-Indo-European *speḱ- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *spéḱyeti Proto-Hellenic *sképt͏̌omai Ancient Greek σκέπτομαι (sképtomai) Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *-ós Proto-Indo-European *-ós Proto-Hellenic *-ós ▲ Ancient Greek -ος (-os)influ. Ancient Greek -ός (-ós) Ancient Greek σκοπός (skopós) Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *-eyéti Proto-Indo-European *-esyéti Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁ti Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁yeti Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Ancient Greek -έω (-éō) Ancient Greek σκοπέω (skopéō)der. English -scope Proto-Indo-European *-ikos Proto-Italic *-ikos Latin -icuslbor. Old French -iquebor. Middle English -ik English -ic English -scopic English macroscopic Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-ts Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ts Latin -itāsder. Old French -itebor. Middle English -ite English -ity English macroscopicity From macroscopic + -ity.

Meanings

1. (uncountable) The quality or state of being macroscopic.
   • ...it appears to be a small step from (1) and (2) to the identification of a sufficiently large mass with a macroscopic mass and, by analogy, to the consideration as macroscopic any system having sufficiently large quantum numbers associated with it, as well as to accept such macroscopicity as sufficient for classicality. 2014 September 14, Gregg Jaeger, “What in the (quantum) world is macroscopic?”, in American Journal of Physics, volume 82, number 9, pages 896–905:
   • In contrast, permutation-symmetric pure states feature rather low geometric entanglement and strong and robust macroscopicity 2015, Malte C. Tichy, Chae-Yeun Park, Minsu Kang, Hyunseok Jeong, Klaus Mølmer, “Is macroscopic entanglement a typical trait of many-particle quantum states?”, in arXiv:
2. (countable, qualifier:quantum mechanics) A formal measure of the size of a quantum mechanical system or experiment which, while typically larger than the atomic scale, has not undergone decoherence.
   • Macroscopicities of a representative selection of quantum superposition experiments with mechanical systems plotted against their publication date (adapted from [17] with additional data). 2014, Stefan Nimmrichter, Macroscopic Matter-Wave Interferometry, Springer, page 230:
   • 2014, M. Arndt, et al., Matter wave interferometry with composite quantum objects, G. M. Tino, M. A. Kasevich (editors), Interferometria atomica, Società Italiana di Fisica, [jointly published as Atom Interferometry, IOS Press], page 136, Macroscopicities for a selection of neutron, atom, molecule and SQUID superposition experiments ordered according to their publication date.

Forms