通过捕获离子中的玻色子交换对费米子 - 反费米子散射进行实验量子模拟。

Experimental quantum simulation of fermion-antifermion scattering via boson exchange in a trapped ion.

作者信息

Zhang Xiang, Zhang Kuan, Shen Yangchao, Zhang Shuaining, Zhang Jing-Ning, Yung Man-Hong, Casanova Jorge, Pedernales Julen S, Lamata Lucas, Solano Enrique, Kim Kihwan

机构信息

Center for Quantum Information, Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.

Department of Physics, Renmin University of China, Beijing, 100872, China.

出版信息

Nat Commun. 2018 Jan 15;9(1):195. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-02507-y.

DOI:10.1038/s41467-017-02507-y

PMID:29335446

原文链接:https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5768889/

Abstract

Quantum field theories describe a variety of fundamental phenomena in physics. However, their study often involves cumbersome numerical simulations. Quantum simulators, on the other hand, may outperform classical computational capacities due to their potential scalability. Here we report an experimental realization of a quantum simulation of fermion-antifermion scattering mediated by bosonic modes, using a multilevel trapped ion, which is a simplified model of fermion scattering in both perturbative and non-perturbative quantum electrodynamics. The simulated model exhibits prototypical features in quantum field theory including particle pair creation and annihilation, as well as self-energy interactions. These are experimentally observed by manipulating four internal levels of a Yb trapped ion, where we encode the fermionic modes, and two motional degrees of freedom that simulate the bosonic modes. Our experiment establishes an avenue towards the efficient implementation of field modes, which may prove useful in studies of quantum field theories including non-perturbative regimes.

摘要

量子场论描述了物理学中的各种基本现象。然而，对它们的研究常常涉及繁琐的数值模拟。另一方面，量子模拟器由于其潜在的可扩展性，可能会超越经典计算能力。在此，我们报告了使用多级囚禁离子对由玻色子模式介导的费米子 - 反费米子散射进行量子模拟的实验实现，这是微扰和非微扰量子电动力学中费米子散射的简化模型。模拟模型展现了量子场论中的典型特征，包括粒子对的产生和湮灭以及自能相互作用。通过操纵囚禁在阱中的镱离子的四个内部能级（我们在其中编码费米子模式）以及两个模拟玻色子模式的运动自由度，这些特征在实验中得到了观测。我们的实验为场模式的高效实现开辟了一条途径，这在包括非微扰领域的量子场论研究中可能会被证明是有用的。