Learning more about phase transitions in small systems
Thursday, June 23, 2011 - 12:00
in Physics & Chemistry
(PhysOrg.com) -- "People want to understand phase transitions in a finite system by quantum simulation," Luming Duan tells PhysOrg.com. Duan is a professor at the University of Michigan, located in Ann Arbor. "Being able to see a sharp phase transition in a small finite system is unusual and would help us better understand the strength and limitation of quantum simulation. Quantum simulation is a useful tool to study the properties of new materials." So far, it has been difficult to observe sharp phase transitions in such small systems Duan, though, believes that it is possible to create a way to observe sharp transitions in small quantum systems associated with the trapped ion experiments.