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The findings reveal dynamic states of matter that cannot exist in materials left unchanged over time.<\/p>\n
Time can reshape quantum matter<\/p>\n
Ian Powell at the California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly<\/a>) and his student Louis Buchalter constructed a model to examine this.<\/p>\n The model is built around a magnetic field<\/a> that doesn\u2019t hold a steady value. Instead, it switches between two settings on a fixed timer, over and over again. <\/p>\n This timed switching is called a flux-switching drive, belonging to a technique known as Floquet<\/a> engineering.<\/p>\n The process involves pushing a quantum material with a repeating signal until it reaches states the material would never settle into on its own.<\/p>\n Impossible states in ordinary materials<\/p>\n The results made physicists more intrigued than ever before. Some of the states produced by this kind of driving don\u2019t exist in sedentary material.<\/p>\n This is because there is no fixed material or recipe of atoms that would produce the same state, if just left alone. <\/p>\n Until this study, physicists had explored many versions of this technique, but not as precisely. <\/p>\n No one had mapped out what happens when the magnetic field itself is the thing being switched. <\/p>\n What quantum properties depend on<\/p>\n This research provided exact solutions for a simple case. In this study, the flux flips between negative and positive halves, and a phase diagram holds for any driving period.<\/p>\n Inside that diagram, certain regions support behaviors the equivalent static lattice simply cannot produce. <\/p>\n The bands of allowed energies rearrange themselves into a pattern that no unchanging crystal would ever fall into.<\/p>\n \u201cThe central idea is that useful quantum properties can depend not just on what a material is, but on how it is driven in time,\u201d said Powell.<\/p>\n A problem of fragility<\/p>\n A difficulty in retrieving this data is that quantum machines are incredibly fragile and not easy to navigate.<\/p>\n Qubits that store information come undone fast. Thus, small disturbances such as stray fields, tiny temperature swings or electrical hum can knock them off course and corrupt the calculation.<\/p>\n Engineers spend enormous effort shielding hardware from this kind of interference, with mixed success.<\/p>\n Stability has to come from topology rather than from delicate tuning, which makes the states harder to disturb.<\/p>\n Earlier studies<\/a> using light-based systems hinted at this \u2013 states created by a repeating push can hold together even when conditions are imperfect.<\/p>\n Hidden higher dimensions<\/p>\n A second surprise turned up in the math. The setup used by the team is essentially a flat, two-dimensional grid. <\/p>\n However, the equations that describe it follow a pattern that normally only appears in problems with far more dimensions.<\/p>\n This requires much more developed physics. Quantum behaviors that normally require far more elaborate experiments could be studied in a more simplistic manner.<\/p>\n Future tests to come<\/p>\n The work remains theoretical for now, and further development is required for more concrete answers. <\/p>\n In the future, experimentalists would need a platform where they can change a magnetic flux on a fast, repeating schedule and watch the quantum response.<\/p>\n Labs that work with atoms that are chilled to near absolute zero are the obvious candidates.<\/p>\n Other research<\/a> has already shown that the kind of grid this paper describes can be built and controlled in that setting.<\/p>\n \u201cTo move toward industry use, the next steps would be experimental validation and further work connecting these ideas to realistic quantum-device platforms,\u201d Powell said.<\/p>\n A new ingredient for design<\/p>\n Before this paper, physicists knew that periodic driving can dress up known quantum phases and even generate a few ever-changing ones. What they did not have was a clean, fully solved example.<\/p>\n Now, one exists, proving the case of a magnetic flux that flips on a schedule, complete with a phase diagram.<\/p>\n The result tightens the theoretical scaffolding under driven quantum matter<\/a> and gives experimentalists a specific target to aim at in the next round of cold-atom experiments.<\/p>\n If a cold-atom team could build this drive and reads out the predicted phases, new path for quantum computing would be forged.<\/p>\n The study is published in the journal Physical Review B<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter<\/a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.<\/p>\n Check us out on EarthSnap<\/a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls<\/a> and Earth.com.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When a magnet is brought close to iron, the force between them stays predictable as long as nothing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[271],"tags":[18,19,17,452,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-476828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-physics","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-physics","12":"tag-science"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116546399805114886","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}