A step closer to understanding quantum mechanics: Swansea University's Physicists develop a new quantum simulation protocol
For most everyday experiences, such as riding a bicycle, using a lift or catching a ball, classical (Newtonian) mechanics is perfectly accurate.
However, at atomic and subatomic scales Nature is described by quantum mechanics, formulated around 100 years ago and famously characterised by theoretical physicist Richard Feynman when he said: "I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics."
Even today understanding the dynamics of quantum-mechanical systems composed of a large number of interacting particles remains one of the most difficult problems in physics.
To address this challenge, an interdisciplinary research collaboration of quantum information theorists from Swansea University's Physics Department has developed a new quantum simulation protocol.
In their theory study, published in Physical Review X, high-energy physicist Professor Gert Aarts together with Dr Markus Müller and Alejandro Bermudez propose to use cold atoms as controllable quantum sensors to experimentally access key properties of interacting quantum field theories. The results could elucidate difficult, open questions in condensed matter and high-energy physics.
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