Monday, December 5, 2011

Last week paper...

Quantum simulation of the hexagonal Kitaev model with trapped ions. 
R. Schmied, J. H. Wesenberg and D. Leibfried. 
New Journal of Physics 13, 115011 (2011).

This was the paper I liked the most last week. That Janus is a great guy and a friend—which counts a lot—is not the reason behind my choice but that it is...
  1. ... a rigorous analisis of the effects of introducing conducting cover plates into ion traps.
  2. ... a proposal to generate optimal two-dimensional trapping configurations.
  3. ... a proposal for analogue quantum simulation of Kitaev model with ions in a structured 2D trap.

For the first point, they use the method of images in electrostatic analysis in order to get the Green functions of ions in the presence of a conducting and a grounded cover plates, then they add the effect of the conducting electrodes and the dipole-dipole interactions between trapped ions.

So, that's already something really nice, but they go further and analyze the Columb-potential-induced nearest neighbor interactions. They realize that this allow them to do analogue (continuous time) simulation—usually ion trap schemes are used for digital (step time) simulation—. Again, they conduct a meticulous approach: the normal modes and the vibrational bands are calculated under stiff traping and they develop a series of conditions and arguments for the scheme to work. In particular they talk about stringent bounds to time scales.

Finally, they put their money where their mouth is and show how to simulate the hexagonal Kitaev Hamiltonian. Again, their treatment is as complete as it can get.

The document is so nicely written that one gets that feeling of understanding every step they are taking. Go for it, it's for free! You will enjoy good, formal, honest physics.

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