Periodic Reporting for period 3 - AGEnTh (Atomic Gauge and Entanglement Theories)
Reporting period: 2021-05-01 to 2022-10-31
Quantum mechanics governs the behavior of fundamental constituents of matter, from atoms and molecules to light. While the rules of quantum mechanics are remarkably elegant and have been successfully demonstrated in experiments with single atoms, large quantum systems (such as synthetic quantum matter, the hardware of quantum computers) are very complicated objects in particular due to the presence of large amount of entanglement (‘spooky-action’ at distance). Understanding the working mechanisms and many-body quantum matter, and expanding its capabilities of being used as technological useful devices, requires the development and novel methods to probe and engineered quantum matter.
We have introduced and applied new methods to understand the basic principles of entangled quantum matter utilizing a highly interdisciplinary approach that combined traditional concepts in quantum many-body physics with approaches from very disparate fields - from mathematical physics, to data science and quantum optics. In particular, we have conceived methods to detect entanglement in present-day quantum simulators (single-purpose quantum computers), and proposed experiments where such machines can be used to study the dynamics of ‘gauge theories’ - models that are typically used to describe particle physics, such as the standard model.
Our results have shown how two fascinating aspects of many-body quantum mechanics - highly entangled matter and gauge theories - can be experimentally tested in table top experiments. We expect to unveil the corresponding many-body physics of such settings in the second part of the project.