In quantum many-body physics, researchers have conventionally asked a specific question: Given a particular system of interacting particles, what quantum phases can emerge? But in the past few years, attention has begun shifting to the inverse question: Given a particular quantum phase, what systems could give rise to it? Now Nicolai Lang and his colleagues at the University of Stuttgart in Germany have made progress in answering that question [1]. In their theoretical work, they have shown how simple atomic systems could be coaxed into preordained topologically ordered quantum phases, exotic states with potential applications in quantum computing.
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