In the experiment, developed by the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country in conjunction with the University of Tsinghua (China), the atoms simulate absurd actions "as if they were actors in a quantum theatre."
The research group Quantum Technologies for Information Science (QUTIS) of the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country, led by the Ikerbasque professor Enrique Solano, in collaboration with an experimental group of the University of Tsinghua (Beijing, China) led by professor Kihwan Kim, has created a quantum simulator that is capable of creating unphysical phenomena in the atomic world, in other words, impossible physical phenomena. The researchers in the two groups have succeeded in getting a trapped atom to imitate behaviours that contradict its own fundamental laws, thus taking elements of science fiction to the microscopic world. "We have managed to get an atom to act as if it were infringing the nature of atomic systems, in other words, quantum physics and the theory of relativity. It is just like what happens in the theatre or in science fiction films in which the actors appear to display absurd behaviours that go against natural laws; in this case, the atoms are obliged to simulate absurd actions as if an actor in the theatre or in science fiction were involved," explained Prof Solano.
The results of this research have been published in the journal Nature Communications, in the article "Time reversal and charge conjugation in an embedding quantum simulator." The research team of the UPV/EHU's QUTIS group has been led by Prof Enrique Solano and has had the participation of Dr Lucas Lamata and Dr Jorge Casanova, currently at the University of Ulm, Germany.
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