Jan 11, 2023
Professor Joseph Thywissen of the University of Toronto's Centre for Quantum Information & Quantum Control and the Department of Physics states, "Suppose you knew all there was to know about a water molecule—the chemical formula, the bond angle, etc.
You may be an expert in molecules yet be unaware of the existence of waves in the ocean, let alone how to ride them, the author claims. "That's because when you combine a lot of molecules, they react in a way you probably can't predict," said the scientist.
Thywissen is explaining the link between the behaviour and properties of individual particles and significant numbers of such particles, or the emergence notion in physics. By examining not one, not many, but two isolated, interacting particles, in this case potassium atoms, he and his colleagues have made a first step toward comprehending this shift from "one-to-many" particles.
The outcome, which is presented in a research that was just published in the journal Nature, is a first, modest step toward understanding natural quantum systems and how they could help create quantum simulations that are more potent and efficient.
The intensity of a contact known as a "p-wave interaction" between two potassium atoms was measured by a team of theoretical and experimental physicists from the University of Colorado and the University of Toronto, and the findings support previous predictions.
In naturally occurring systems, P-wave interactions are modest, but scientists had anticipated that they had a significantly larger theoretical upper limit. The team is the first to establish that this maximal p-wave force existed between particles.
Vijin Venu, a University of Toronto Ph.D. in physics, states, "In our lab, we were able to isolate two atoms at a time. With this method, the complexity of many-atom systems is avoided, and the interactions between the atoms in a pair may be fully controlled and studied.
According to University of Toronto physics postdoctoral researcher Cora Fujiwara, the researchers separated pairs of atoms within a 3D optical lattice, or "crystal of light," that was formed at the intersection of three laser beams that were 90 degrees apart. The colliding beams produced intense stationary nodes that captured particle pairs. The scientists were able to gauge the intensity of the pairs' contact by isolating them in this manner.
According to Fujiwara, "What we observed in our experiment was astounding." "It's a wonderful small setup. Now that we have a better grasp of this two-particle system, we may begin to construct other, more unusual systems that contain a huge number of additional particles."
The outcome has implications for several technological fields, including superfluid research, superconductivity, and quantum simulations.
Models known as quantum simulations are used to better understand quantum systems, including those governed by quantum mechanics, such as atoms, molecules, and chemical processes. Understanding how material characteristics result from particle-particle interactions can be aided by these simulations.
In fact, according to Ana Maria Rey, an adjunct professor of physics at the University of Colorado Boulder and a fellow of JILA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the interactions between spin-polarized fermions that we have observed are predicted to give rise to new types of unconventional robust superfluids.
It is a difficult undertaking to solve quantum models on current computers; the task has been compared to teaching quantum physics to a computer. Using real atoms and molecules as existent quantum systems is a possible substitute.
What is difficult for us is simple for nature, claims Thywissen. Therefore, we may use nature's inherent computational capability to tackle issues that would otherwise be insurmountable for humans.
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