A quantum simulator of impossible physics

In this experiment the researchers reproduced in the lab the theoretical proposal previously included in a previous piece of research led by the QUTIS group; it describes the possibility that a trapped atom can display behaviour that is incompatible with the fundamental laws of quantum physics. More specifically, we are talking about operations prohibited in microscopic physical systems, such as charge conjugation, which transforms a particle into an antiparticle, or time reversal, that reverses the direction of the time arrow.

To conduct the experiment it was necessary to use a charged atom trapped by means of electromagnetic fields under the action of an advanced laser system. We could describe symmetry operations of this type as prohibited ones, as they could only exist in a universe that is different from the one we know and governed by different laws. Yet in this experiment it has been possible to simulate the realisation of this set of impossible laws in an atomic system.

The UPV/EHU's QUTIS group is a world leader in quantum simulation and its influential theoretical proposals are often verified in the most advanced quantum technology laboratories.