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Advancing Quantum Science

Advancing Quantum Science

March 12, 2020

When Babak Seradjeh was growing up, he was keen about astronomy. The cosmos was “the target for my imagination,” he says. “But then I came down to Earth.”

What captures the IU physicist’s imagination now are the mysteries surrounding us in this world, what he calls “real science fiction.”

In Seradjeh’s case, those mysteries have to do with quantum physics. A theoretical physicist and associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Physics at IU Bloomington, Seradjeh is part of a growing group of scientists at IU who are advancing a wide range of quantum science and engineering research.

Without question, quantum physics is mysterious. Widely described as “weird,” — even Einstein called the phenomenon of quantum entanglement “spooky action at a distance” —quantum particles can exist in two states at once and can stay entangled with one another despite being separated at great distance.

The weird properties of quantum physics are being exploited by numerous scientists pushing to create the world’s first viable quantum computer. Google, for example, announced in October 2019 that its quantum computer, Sycamore, solved a massively difficult problem in 200 seconds, something no conventional computer could ever reasonably accomplish.

Seradjeh acknowledges the global push toward quantum computing, but he’s quick to point out that IU scientists are pursuing something different: quantum simulation.

We can go beyond the limits of current computational models. We can design new quantum materials and gain new understandings.

Think of a flight simulator, a machine that mimics flight and reveals how an aircraft will react to various factors like wind, bad weather, etc. A quantum simulator would be similar – one quantum system that can tell us about how another quantum system will act.

“We’re trying to create tailored machines that we can use to manipulate and simulate various kinds of quantum systems,” Seradjeh says.

Like most things in the quantum field, quantum simulation is a futuristic, emerging idea, as recognized by $3 million in funding that IU physicists recently received from IU Bloomington’s Emerging Areas of Research program.

“IU is distinguishing itself because we are not building a quantum computer, but a quantum simulator, which eventually can be used to test and build new materials for many new technologies and devices, quickly and with great accuracy,” Seradjeh says.

For now, IU physicists are focused on creating the “hardware” for a quantum simulator. For example, Phil Richerme, assistant professor in the Department of Physics at IU Bloomington, has succeeded in trapping ions, which act as the building blocks for a quantum simulator. But instead of capturing the ions in a one-dimensional chain, Richerme has trapped them in 2D. Because of the greater interactions possible in 2D, Richerme’s “new geometry” for trapping ions opens up new scalability and capabilities.

“We can go beyond the limits of current computational models,” Seradjeh explains. “We can design new quantum materials and gain new understandings.”

Other IU physicists are working on different projects related to quantum simulation and information such as integrating ions and lasers within optical fibers, new kinds of quantum probes, and applying quantum science to the study of chemical reactions that are fundamental to human existence.

Many questions remain, but that’s the nature of science, perhaps especially quantum physics.

“We try to understand what we don’t know, what is going on, and why,” Seradjeh says. “We simplify, simulate, solve, and hopefully, we have an impact where we can see it.”

In other words, real science fiction.