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2010/1/19

Quantum simulation of electrons using an ion

The prestigious Nature journal has published an article about quantum simulation undertaken by the Ikerbasque teacher at the Faculty of Science and Technology (University of the Basque Country -UPV/EHU), Mr Enrique Solano, together with other researchers from the Institute of Physics in Innsbruck (Austria). A number of experts have evaluated and described the work as "a highly important step for physics", adding that "it is the first time that scientists have deliberately achieved a quantum system that reproduces the quantum nature of another in an induced manner".

The article "Quantum simulation of Dirac’s equation" describes the experiment undertaken by these researchers, and in which two incompatible - to date - areas have met: relativist quantum physics and quantum optics with its more advanced technology of atoms and lasers. Dirac’s equation, developed at the end of the 1920s, was the first satisfactory union between quantum physics and the theory of relativity and predicted relativist quantum effects which are difficult to observe.

Quantum simulation is a very recent area of research the idea of which is that quantum physics behaves in an anti-natural manner, copying the properties of another system of difficult access and control. In this way, quantum information would enable calculating that which current computers cannot. Mr Solano explained: "One of the arts in quantum simulation is the study of inaccessible phenomena. Not even all the computers in the world together could manage to calculate, for example, the complex dynamic evolution of 100 atoms".

By means of the confinement of atoms technique - where an atom is "trapped" and immobilised with lasers -, quantum simulation carried out in Innsbruck succeeded in making an atom behave like a relativist quantum particle that moves at a speed close to that of light. Given technical limitations, it has never been possible to observe this particle. The surprising predictions of physicists Dirac and Schrödinger, like the oscillating movement of a relativist particle, were reproduced in the quantum simulation in the laboratory in Innsbruck, following the proposals and ideas of Solano and his team.

The innovative field of quantum simulation will enable new properties of materials to be discovered and it is anticipated that in the coming years evermore complex simulations will be undertaken which will provide new knowledge. "The quantum simulation of materials, relativist phenomena, chemical and nuclear reactions or genetic behaviour will give us very powerful results", predicted Mr Solano.

The Ikerbasque researcher is satisfied with the results published in the Nature journal, although he points out that "being sceptical is part of the job of a scientist" and while this work opens a hitherto unexplored line of research, neither he nor his team are sitting on their laurels with what is "a first step" and are looking to "do much more".

Mr Solano alludes to Mr Richard Feynman, 1965, Nobel Prize-winner for Physics and who was the conceptual precursor of quantum simulation. "Feynman put forward the idea of quantum simulation with the goal of nature calculating that which our computers could not or would never be able to. Quantum simulation is a theatre where the daily life of a quantum nature that is inaccessible for humans is represented”, he stated.