ETH Zurich Researchers Simulate Quantum Gauge Theories in Lab Experiment

(Phys.org) A team of researchers at ETH Zurich’s Institute for Quantum Electronics successfully implemented a fundamental ingredient for the simulation of quantum gauge theories in a laboratory experiment. Their hope is that by simulating quantum systems in a highly controlled environment, they will gather interesting observations and broaden their understanding of many-body systems (i.e., systems with many particles that interact with each other).
The recent study carried out by this team of researchers introduces a new versatile method to implement and simulate different classes of density-dependent gauge fields. Ultimately, the technique they proposed could pave the way for exciting new physics observations and theories. In their future work, the researchers plan to use it to study the interplay between dynamical gauge fields and atoms in many-body systems implemented in an extended optical lattice.