CONSIDERATIONS ON LOCALIZATION OF MACROSCOPIC BODIES

Position holds a very special role in understanding the classical beha viour of macroscopic bodies on the basis of quantum principles. This l eads us to examine the localised states of a large condensed object in the context of a realistic model. Following the argument that an isol ated macroscopic body is usually described by a linear superposition o f low-lying energy eigenstates, it has been found that localised state s of this type correspond to a nearly minimum-uncertainty state for th e center of mass. An indication is also given of the dependence of the center of mass position spread on the number of constituent particles . This paper is not offered as an answer to the intriguing question of the preferred role played by the position basis, but will hopefully p rovide some contribution to the quantum modelling of multiparticle sys tems.