This question is addressed in a new paper by Giuliano Giudici from LMU Munich, Ignacio Cirac from the Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics, and our group leader Norbert Schuch which has just been published in Physical Review B.

The quest for realizing quantum models with exotic unconventional behavior is severely impeded by the need to engineer the underlying complicated many-body interactions in real materials or laboratory experiments. In their work, the authors introduce a systematic method which can break down complicated interactions into simple elementary building blocks, and which is applicable to a large class of interesting and well-studied quantum models.

The power of the method is demonstrated by applying it to one of the most paradigmatic models: The Resonating Valence Bond state on the kagome lattice, which forms a prime candidate for an exotic "topological spin liquid" – elusive materials with a range of unconventional properties which make them e.g. suitable for quantum computing. Using their newly developed method, the authors demonstrate that the hitherto simplest known way to realize the Resonating Valence Bond state – requiring a fully general 12-body interaction – can be replaced by mere 8-body interactions which possess a very special structure, making such models significantly easier to realize in practice.

Interested in learning more? Have a look at our paper on the arXiv (open access), or at the  published version at Physical Review B [Phys. Rev. B 106, 035109 (2022)].

 This work has received support through the ERC grant SEQUAM.