Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Magnetic atoms push interactions to new lengths for quantum simulation

Lasers, and a cold ensemble of magnetic atoms, have been used to mimic a complex quantum system characterized by long-range interactions — an essential ingredient for realizing realistic models of many quantum materials.
  1. P. Blair Blakie

    1. P. Blair Blakie is in the Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies and Department of Physics, University of Otago, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  2. Barbara Capogrosso-Sansone

    1. Barbara Capogrosso-Sansone is in the Department of Physics, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts 01610, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Physicists have been predicting the quantum behaviour of condensed-matter systems for decades. But studying something as complicated as electrons moving through a solid has never been easy — even with the advent of modern computing. One approach involves trapping atoms in arrays, created by laser beams, that are designed to mimic crystal lattices. These ‘optical lattices’ have been tremendously helpful for investigating systems in which atoms interact only over very short distances, but long-range interactions have been difficult to realize. Writing in Nature, Su et al.1 report using an optical lattice to simulate a quantum system in which long-range interactions dominate. Their success paves the way to understanding the rich physics of a range of quantum materials.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 622, 704-705 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03152-w

References

  1. Su, L. et al. Nature 622, 724–729 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Hubbard, J. Proc. R. Soc. Lon. A 276, 238–257 (1963).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Fisher, M. P. A., Weichman, P. B., Grinstein, G. & Fisher, D. S. Phys. Rev. B 40, 546–570 (1989).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Greiner, M., Mandel, O., Esslinger, T., Hänsch, T. W. & Bloch, I. Nature 415, 39–44 (2002).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Bakr, W. S., Gillen, J. I., Peng, A., Fölling, S. & Greiner, M. Nature 462, 74–77 (2009).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Windpassinger, P. & Sengstock, K. Rep. Prog. Phys. 76, 086401 (2013).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Sugawa, S. et al. Nature Phys. 7, 642–648 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Capogrosso-Sansone, B., Trefzger, C., Lewenstein, M., Zoller, P. & Pupillo, G. Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 125301, (2010).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Carr, L. D., DeMille, D., Krems, R. V. & Ye, J. N. J. Phys. 11, 055049 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Baier, S. et al. Science 352, 201–205 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Zhang, J., Zhang, C., Yang, J. & Capogrosso-Sansone, B. Phys. Rev. A 105, 063302 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Bak, P. Rep. Progr. Phys. 45, 587 (1982).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Spivak, B. & Kivelson, S. A. Phys. Rev. B 70, 155114 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links