Testing Quantum Field Theory in a Quantum Simulator
(World News Austria)

What happened right after the beginning of the universe? How can we understand the structure of quantum materials? How does the Higgs-Mechanism work? Such fundamental questions can only be answered using quantum field theories. These theories do not describe particles independently from each other; all particles are seen as a collective field, permeating the whole universe. But these theories are often hard to test in an experiment. At the Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology (VCQ) at TU Wien, researchers have now demonstrated how quantum field theories can be put to the test in new kinds of experiments. They have created a quantum system consisting of thousands of ultra cold...