An experiment capable of taking a step forward in the research activity dedicated to the development of quantum technologies on which the international scientific community has long been committed. It has been created by a research group from the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Florence, which observed a new state of matter by trapping atoms in crystals of laser light. Using gas-cooled to a few billionths of a degree above absolute zero, the team led by Leonardo Fallani of the University of Florence managed to capture fermionic atoms in "crystals" made of light and, with the use of sophisticated laser technologies, to accurate their spin.
The results of the discovery were illustrated in an article published by the scientific journal Nature Physics entitled 'Flavour-selective localization in interacting lattice fermions'. A fundamental contribution to the project was given by the group of Massimo Capone of SISSA, expert in the theoretical physics of strongly correlated systems, who together with the group of researchers conceived the experiment and oversaw the theoretical interpretation of the results, validating the result of quantum simulation.