Elusive phase change finally spotted in a quantum simulator
An ion trap can control atoms for quantum experimentsY. Colombe/NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
After decades of looking, researchers have seen a string of atoms go through a 1D phase change so elusive that it could only happen inside a quantum simulator.
“One motivation [for our experiment] is really trying to understand fundamental physics. We’re trying to understand just the basic states that matter can be in,” says Alexander Schuckert at the University of Maryland.
He and his colleagues used electromagnetic fields to arrange 23 ions of the element ytterbium into a line, forming a nearly one-dimensional chain. This device can be used for quantum computing, but in this case, the researchers used the chain as a simulator inste...