Using silicon chips to trap ultracold atoms: "“The idea,” Seth Aubin, a post-doctoral researcher in the group, tells PhysOrg.com “is to create your own Hamiltonian for the simulation.” The research at the University of Toronto, published May 28th in Nature Physics, simplifies and accelerates the efficient production of the ultra-cold fermion gases required for the quantum simulations of high temperature superconductors.

“The idea of using a silicon chip is novel,” says Aubin. “It’s neat that we’re using these chips with lithographically printed wires. The wires can be used to get tighter traps. It’s the tightness that is important.” Aubin explains that tighter traps allow for a higher rate of collision between particles, as well as a higher re-thermalization rate. And this is important when one is dealing with trapping rare atoms for use in a simulation. "