Towards quantum states of sound

(Phys.org) A team of researchers at Imperial College London, together with the University of Oxford, the Niels Bohr Institute, the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, and Australian National University have generated and observed non-Gaussian states of high-frequency sound waves comprising more than a trillion atoms. More specifically, the team transform a randomly fluctuating sound field in thermal equilibrium to a pattern thrumming with a more specific magnitude.
This research makes important strides towards generating more macroscopic quantum states that will enable future quantum internet components to be developed and the limits of quantum mechanics itself to be tested.
“Generating non-Gaussian quantum states is important for research in quantum information and the foundations of physics, and excitingly, this research brings us closer to generating such states at a macroscopic scale using sound fields,” says co-first author Georg Enzian, now pursuing research at the Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen.
“Future work using this approach offers a practical route to coherently store and retrieve quantum information. That is, make a quantum RAM for a quantum computer. Moreover, this type of research can shed much needed light on the different mechanisms that cause fragile quantum phenomena to decay and become classical,” highlights Imperial’s Quantum Measurement Lab principal investigator Michael Vanner.