An atomic boson sampler. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38720040/)

These scientists wanted to see if they could use a special type of quantum computing called a boson sampler to do some really cool experiments. A boson sampler is like a special machine that can create patterns by using particles called bosons. These bosons move around in a specific way that can be controlled by the scientists.

In the past, scientists have used light particles called photons to do these experiments, but it was hard to control the exact number of photons and sometimes they would get lost. So, these scientists decided to try using atoms instead of photons. They used very cold atoms and trapped them in a special setup called a two-dimensional optical lattice.

To make this work, they had to use some fancy tools to cool down the atoms and take pictures of them in the lattice. They also used something called optical tweezers to move the atoms around and control their behavior. By doing this, they were able to show that they could create different states of atoms, which is really important for simulating different models in science.

Overall, these scientists did a really cool experiment using atoms to show that boson sampling can be done in a new and exciting way.

Young AW., Geller S., Eckner WJ., Schine N., Glancy S., Knill E., Kaufman AM. An atomic boson sampler. Nature. 2024 May;629(8011):311-316. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07304-4. Epub 2024 May 8.