Long before Dr. Jukka Vayrynen was an assistant professor at the Purdue Department of Physics and Astronomy, he was a post-doc investigating a theoretical model with emergent particles in a condensed matter setting. Once he arrived at Purdue, he intended to expand on the model, expecting it to be relatively easy. He gave the seemingly straightforward calculations to Guangjie Li, a graduate student working with Vayrynen, but the calculations yielded an unexpected result. These results were a surprising roadblock which nearly brought their research to a screeching halt. Team tenacity has taken this roadblock and turned it into a possible route to the development of quantum computing.
At the Aspen Center for Physics in Colorado, Vayrynen discussed this issue with a colleague from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, Dr. Yuval Oreg, who helped circumvent the obstacle. The team used this new understanding of their calculations to propose a quantum device that could be tested experimentally to succinctly realize emergent particles such as the Fibonacci anyon. They have published their findings, "Multichannel topological Kondo effect," in Physical Review Letters on February 10, 2023.
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