Indestructible quantum rifts can exist in two places at once

Indestructible quantum rifts can exist in two places at once

Indestructible quantum rifts can exist in two places at once

An ion trap helped create a quantum defect in two places at once

ANDREW BROOKES, NATIONAL PHYSICAL LABORATORY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Exotic quantum rifts have been created with charged atoms, and they exist in a superposition of being in two places at once. This is a first step towards better understanding the behaviour of such quantum defects in everything from materials to an entire universe.

Defects are ubiquitous – think of tears in textiles or cloudy imperfections in shiny crystals – but in quantum systems, they can have the extra property of being topological. That means the overall structure of the…

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