Caltech researchers conducted groundbreaking quantum-simulation experiments that directly measured energy levels predicted by Ising and tricritical Ising conformal field theories, testing universal behavior in quantum systems.

Collaborators include Caltech’s Manuel Endres and Jason Alicea, with partners at Université Paris-Saclay and Technical University of Munich, and the work was supported by DOE, NSF, ARO, DARPA, AFOSR, Moore Foundation, and DFG.

Researchers trapped strontium atoms in line configurations, promoted them to Rydberg states to enable strong interactions, and manipulated chain ends to explore different symmetry sectors and their impact on the energy ladder.

Published in Nature, the study used neutral-atom optical tweezer arrays as quantum simulators to study energy ladders in synthetic quantum matter at near absolute zero.

The publication is titled “Observation of conformal field theory spectra in a quantum simulator,” with contributions from Caltech and international researchers.

The findings provide an experimental realization of conformal field theory predictions and demonstrate the usefulness of quantum-simulation approaches for probing fundamental physics, with plans to extend to two-dimensional atom grids for more complex systems.

The experiment used many-body modulation spectroscopy to map energy levels, showing universal spectra scaling with system size for the Ising case and predicted ratios at the tricritical point.