Entanglement and Emergence in Simulations of Quantum Matter

量子物质模拟中的纠缠和出现

• 批准号: 355283-2013
• 负责人: Melko, Roger
• 金额: $ 2.4万
• 依托单位: University of Waterloo
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=595649
• 关键词: Entanglement; Emergence; Simulations; Quantum; Matter

This century will see an unprecedented revolution in the way scientists design materials, devices, and information systems. This revolution will be ushered in by harnessing the extraordinary properties of quantum mechanics, which will allow new possibilities in materials science and information technology. For this to happen, materials and systems will be designed from the atomic level up to the macroscopic scale. However, this presents challenges, since the quantum mechanical equations that govern even the simplest many-body behaviour are vastly complex, and rarely amenable to exact solution by analytical treatments. Instead, in this research program, we will use state-of-the-art numerical tools to simulate novel quantum systems at their very core, by modeling the individual constituent electrons, atoms, and spins. The focus of the research will be on discovering, classifying, and characterizing novel or exotic phenomena that can emerge in quantum many-body systems, such as electronic matter, magnetic materials, or cold atom systems. This phenomena might include new phases of matter, such as spin liquid or topological phases, or fundamentally new excitations, such as fractional charges, spin-charge separated electrons, or particles with anyonic statistics. Beyond their potential to provide innovative materials properties, such phenomena may be suited to construct the fundamental building blocks of future generations of "topological" quantum computers. A particular goal of the research will be to determine which types of quantum phenomea are "emergent", meaning that they can not be derived from the microscopic equations governing the constituent particles - a task uniquely suited for exploration by computer simulations. In addition, we will focus on classifying exotic quantum phases and excitations by their entanglement properties, something made possible by recent innovations in algorithm technology. In this way, the proposed computer simulations will form a firm theoretical basis for the types of quantum phenomena that will be the foundation of 21st century quantum materials.

本世纪将在科学家设计材料，设备和信息系统的方式上看到一场前所未有的革命。这项革命将通过利用量子力学的非凡特性来引入，这将允许材料科学和信息技术中的新可能性。为此，材料和系统将从原子水平到宏观量表进行设计。但是，这提出了挑战，因为即使控制最简单的多体行为的量子机械方程也非常复杂，并且很少通过分析处理来确切解决方案。取而代之的是，在此研究计划中，我们将使用最先进的数值工具来模拟其核心的新型量子系统，并通过对单个组成的电子，原子和自旋进行建模。研究的重点将放在发现，分类和表征可以在量子多体系统（例如电子物质，磁性材料或冷原子系统）中出现的新型或外来现象。这种现象可能包括物质的新阶段，例如自旋液体或拓扑阶段，或从根本上进行新的激发，例如分数电荷，旋转电荷分离的电子或具有任何统计的颗粒。除了提供创新材料特性的潜力之外，这种现象还适用于构建子孙后代“拓扑”量子计算机的基本组成部分。该研究的一个特定目标是确定哪种类型的量子现象“紧急”，这意味着它们不能从管理组成粒子的显微镜方程中得出，这是一项非常适合通过计算机模拟探索的任务。此外，我们将专注于通过其纠缠属性对异国情调的量子阶段和激发进行分类，这是由于算法技术的最新创新而成为可能的。通过这种方式，提出的计算机模拟将成为量子现象类型的牢固理论基础，这将是21世纪量子材料的基础。