Descrizione del progetto
Svelare i segreti degli anioni
Nell'intricato regno della fisica quantistica, il peculiare comportamento delle particelle dà origine a un affascinante rompicapo. Mentre nei sistemi tridimensionali si effettua una suddivisione tra fermioni e bosoni, nei paesaggi bidimensionali sono presenti anche gli enigmatici anioni, particelle che, sfidando le norme convenzionali, possiedono una fase di scambio unica e presentano un'esclusione parziale. In questo contesto, il progetto ASTEC, finanziato dal CER, si addentra nei collisori su scala nanometrica per esplorare quantitativamente le statistiche degli anioni. Ponendo l'accento sulla protezione topologica, il progetto esamina l'effetto Hall quantistico frazionario con l'obiettivo di svelare i misteri che si celano dietro agli anioni non abeliani. Avventurandosi in territori inesplorati, il progetto ASTEC promette di segnare una svolta nella comprensione in tal ambito, aprendo la strada al calcolo quantistico topologicamente protetto.
Obiettivo
In three dimensional systems, elementary particles are divided exclusively between fermions (which exclude each others) and bosons (which bunch together) according to the phase acquired by the wavefunction when two particles are exchanged. The situation is different in two-dimensional systems which can host new particles called anyons, for which the exchange phase can take any value, and which obey partial exclusion, between fermions and bosons. Interestingly, these quasiparticles keep a memory of the exchanges between them that is protected from local perturbations of their trajectories: one speaks of topological protection. This protection is at the heart of the interest for anyons, as specific types of anyons called non-abelian are the building blocks of topological quantum computing that would be protected from decoherence.
The existence of these quasiparticles was predicted forty years ago in two-dimensional conductors in the fractional quantum Hall regime. However, despite intense experimental and theoretical efforts, direct signatures of their fractional statistics have only been observed recently, offering only now the possibility to characterize fractional statistics and to exploit it for new functionalities.
The purpose of this project is to quantitatively investigate the statistics of anyons by probing their tendency to bunch together or exclude each others in a nanoscale collider. The different phases of the fractional quantum Hall effect offer a very vast and almost completely unexplored variety of anyons. I will characterize the differences between different statistics, including the most interesting non-abelian case. I will also investigate the robustness of the signatures of fractional statistics and to which extent they can be considered as topologically protected. Finally, I will probe anyon statistics in the time-domain regime, where anyon emission is dynamically controlled, which is a necessary condition for quantum information perspectives.
Campo scientifico
- natural sciencesphysical sciencestheoretical physicsparticle physicsparticle accelerator
- natural sciencesphysical sciencestheoretical physicsparticle physicsfermions
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringcomputer hardwarequantum computers
Programma(i)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsIstituzione ospitante
75006 Paris
Francia