Researchers saw a chain of atoms in a quantum simulator go from being magnetic to not magnetic at all, the first time such a change has ever been seen in one spatial dimension
An ion trap can control atoms for quantum experiments Y. Colombe/NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY After decades of looking, researchers have seen a string of atoms go through a 1D phase change so elusive that it could only happen inside a quantum simulator. "One motivation [for our experiment] is really trying to understand fundamental physics. We're trying to understand just the basic states that matter can be in," says Alexander Schuckert at the University of Maryland. Advertisement He and his colleagues used electromagnetic fields to arrange 23 ions of the element ytterbium into a line, forming a nearly one-dimensional chain. This device can be used for quantum computing, but in this case, the researchers used the chain as a simulator instead. Within it, they built a 1D ytterbium magnet one atom at a time. Previous calculations predicted this type of magnet would become unmagnetised when warmed,…