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Anderson localization

The role of quantum symmetries

Nature Photonics volume 7, pages 271–273 (2013)Cite this article

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A Correction to this article was published on 29 April 2013

This article has been updated

Experiments with a quantum simulator made from an integrated optical circuit reveal that bosons and fermions react to disorder in different ways, experiencing different strengths of Anderson localization.

Fifty years after the discovery of Anderson localization, the influence of disorder continues to surprise. In 1958, the US physicist P. W. Anderson discovered the phenomenon of disorder-induced localization while pursuing a general theory of electron transport1. Anderson predicted for the first time that disorder can arrest the transport of energy in random systems through the generation of spatially localized wavefunctions that trap electrons. As is sometimes the case after a great discovery, very few people were fully convinced of the initial prediction and its consequences, including Anderson himself2. It took about 20 years for the scientific community to recognize the universal character of Anderson's work; he was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1977. The importance of Anderson localization extends beyond quantum mechanics as it is a ubiquitous state for waves, which also manifests itself in classical media3,4,5,6,7.

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Figure 1: Quantum walk simulator: scheme and results.

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  • 16 April 2013

    In the News and Views article entitled "Anderson localization: The role of quantum symmetries" (Nature Photon. 7, 271–273; 2013), the authors of ref. 8, on which this piece was based, should have been listed as Crespi, A. et al. This error has been corrected in both the HTML and PDF versions.

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  1. Andrea Fratalocchi is at PRIMALIGHT, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Applied Mathematics and Computational Science, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia,

    Andrea Fratalocchi

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  1. Andrea Fratalocchi
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Correspondence to Andrea Fratalocchi.

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Fratalocchi, A. The role of quantum symmetries. Nature Photon 7, 271–273 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2013.72

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