Physicists have learned to manipulate electrons in gigantic Rydberg atoms with such precision they can create 'synthetic dimensions' where the system acts as if it had extra spatial dimensions, which are important tools for quantum simulations.
Our spatial sense doesn't extend beyond the familiar three dimensions, but that doesn't stop scientists from playing with whatever lies beyond. Rice University physicists are pushing spatial boundaries in new experiments. They've learned to control electrons in gigantic Rydberg atoms with such precision they can create "synthetic dimensions," important tools for quantum simulations. The Rice team developed a technique to engineer the Rydberg states of ultracold strontium atoms by applying resonant microwave electric fields to couple many states together. A Rydberg state occurs when one electron in the atom is energetically bumped up to a highly excited state, supersizing its orbit to make the atom thousands of times larger than normal. Ultracold Rydberg atoms are about a millionth of a degree above absolute zero. By precisely and flexibly manipulating the electron motion, Rice Quantum Initiative researchers coupled latticelike Rydberg levels in ways that simulate aspects of real materials. The techniques could also help realize systems that can't be achieved in real three-dimensional space, creating a powerful new platform for quantum research. Rice physicists Tom Killian, Barry Dunning and Kaden Hazzard, all members of the initiative, detailed the research along with lead author and graduate student Soumya Kanungo in a paper published in Nature Communications. The study built off previous work on Rydberg atoms that Killian and Dunning first explored in 2018. Rydberg atoms possess many regularly spaced quantum energy levels, which can be coupled by microwaves that allow the highly excited electron to move from level to level. Dynamics in this "synthetic dimension" are mathematically equivalent to a particle moving between lattice sites in a real crystal. advertisement "In a typical…