 Schrödinger cat state

A coherent superposition of distinct optical coherent amplitudes, for example $N(|\alpha ⟩+e^{i\varphi }|-\alpha ⟩)$. It differs from the corresponding incoherent mixture through cross terms in observables and its phase-space interference. For large $|\alpha |$, branch distinguishability is large while ordinary quadrature squeezing can become exponentially small.