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Cai ML, Wu YK, Mei QX, Zhao WD, Jiang Y, Yao L, He L, Zhou ZC, Duan LM. Observation of supersymmetry and its spontaneous breaking in a trapped ion quantum simulator. Nat Commun 2022; 13:3412. [PMID: 35701410 PMCID: PMC9197856 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31058-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2022] [Accepted: 05/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Supersymmetry (SUSY) helps solve the hierarchy problem in high-energy physics and provides a natural groundwork for unifying gravity with other fundamental interactions. While being one of the most promising frameworks for theories beyond the Standard Model, its direct experimental evidence in nature still remains to be discovered. Here we report experimental realization of a supersymmetric quantum mechanics (SUSY QM) model, a reduction of the SUSY quantum field theory for studying its fundamental properties, using a trapped ion quantum simulator. We demonstrate the energy degeneracy caused by SUSY in this model and the spontaneous SUSY breaking. By a partial quantum state tomography of the spin-phonon coupled system, we explicitly measure the supercharge of the degenerate ground states, which are superpositions of the bosonic and the fermionic states. Our work demonstrates the trapped-ion quantum simulator as an economic yet powerful platform to study versatile physics in a single well-controlled system.
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Affiliation(s)
- M-L Cai
- Center for Quantumf Information, Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,HYQ Co., Ltd, 100176, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Y-K Wu
- Center for Quantumf Information, Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Q-X Mei
- Center for Quantumf Information, Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - W-D Zhao
- Center for Quantumf Information, Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Y Jiang
- Center for Quantumf Information, Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - L Yao
- Center for Quantumf Information, Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,HYQ Co., Ltd, 100176, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - L He
- Center for Quantumf Information, Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Z-C Zhou
- Center for Quantumf Information, Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences, 100193, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - L-M Duan
- Center for Quantumf Information, Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
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