Quantum State Assembler

Project Information

QuStA

Grant agreement ID: 725636

DOI

10.3030/725636

Project closed

EC signature date 21 March 2017

Start date 1 April 2017

End date 31 March 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 958 101,00

EU contribution

€ 1 958 101,00

Coordinated by

RUPRECHT-KARLS-UNIVERSITAET HEIDELBERG
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - QuStA (Quantum State Assembler)

Reporting period: 2021-10-01 to 2023-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

In our modern world we use a large number of materials with exotic properties that cannot easily explained by looking at their constituents. Quantum correlations are at work and understanding the reason for interesting macroscopic behavior is often elusive. QuStA tries to build model materials starting from basic building blocks to decipher key mechanisms. This might help researchers to establish new strategies to find – or fine tune – materials with new properties.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Four major breakthroughs are achieved while working on QuStA:
a) By tuning the interactions between the constituting atoms, QuStA could observe how a system of up to 12 trapped atoms transitions from one with normal conducting properties to one where transport is possible without any resistance. The precursor of a phase transition between a normal- and a superfluid was observed.
b) To test what is exactly the mechanism behind this phase transition, the researchers started to look into the correlations that might be responsible, for which they had to devise a new method to detect each and every single particle. To test this method, they used it on a system of noninteracting fermionic atoms, which obey the Pauli principle also known from chemistry. As of these particles only one can occupy a quantum state at a time. This is how they form what is called a Pauli crystal, even though there is literally no interaction between them. QuStA could for the first time observe such a crystal.
c) Taking the Pauli crystals and turning attractions on between opposite spin states, correlations between atoms could be revealed that resemble very much the so-called Cooper pairs, a paradigmatic quantum mechanism that is behind superconductivity in real materials.
d) By observing the time evolution of an initially elliptic cloud, fluid behavior could be found in a system consisting of only ten atoms, contrary to contemporary teaching in text books, that describe fluids as macroscopic objects.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

There has been a lot of interest recently about controlling and manipulating quantum states for the use in quantum computation and simulation. While the number of particles currently employed by QuStA are not as large as in other systems, one major advantage is that due to its unique approach, it can prepare systems in a state where all degrees of freedom are controlled. In this way, already with 20 atoms, the largest system QuStA can currently prepare reliably, QuStA is significantly above the limit of what can be modelled on a conventional computer.

cooperpairs.png

Momentum correlations between three noninteracting Atoms form a Pauli crystal