In two experiments with ultracold atoms, researchers explored the panorama of various topological shapes they may create in area and time. Credit: craiyon.com with modifications by Dina Genkina/JQI
One of probably the most thrilling functions of quantum computer systems will probably be to direct their gaze inwards, on the very quantum guidelines that make them tick. Quantum computer systems can be utilized to simulate quantum physics itself, and maybe even discover realms that do not exist anyplace in nature.
But even within the absence of a completely purposeful, large-scale quantum pc, physicists can use a quantum system they’ll simply management to emulate a extra difficult or much less accessible one. Ultracold atoms—atoms which might be cooled to temperatures only a tad above absolute zero—are a number one platform for quantum simulation. These atoms could be managed with laser beams and magnetic fields, and coaxed into performing a quantum dance routine choreographed by an experimenter. It’s additionally pretty simple to look into their quantum nature utilizing high-resolution imaging to extract info after—or whereas—they full their steps.
Now, researchers at JQI and the NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Robust Quantum Simulation (RQS), led by former JQI postdoctoral fellow Mingwu Lu and graduate scholar Graham Reid, have coached their ultracold atoms to do a brand new dance, including to the rising toolkit of quantum simulation. In a pair of research, they’ve bent their atoms out of practice, winding their quantum mechanical spins round in each area and time earlier than tying them off to create a type of space-time quantum pretzel.
They mapped out the curvy space-time form they created and reported their ends in an article titled “Floquet Engineering Topological Dirac Bands” within the journal Physical Review Letters…
2023-01-23 16:52:52 Twisting up atoms by way of area and time
Link from phys.org