On January 26, 2023, Zyvex Labs was awarded a DOE Basic Sciences program that will enable a new experimental path to explore Nuclear Physics. Working with sub-contractors, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD), we will expand the usefulness of our Atomic Precision patterning that is already being used to create Analog Quantum Simulator (AQS) devices to study Condensed Matter Physics. In this new program we will study Nuclear Physics with AQS devices designed to enable applications in Gauge Field Theories. Gauge Field Theories are the mathematical framework underlying three of the four fundamental forces in Nature, and are hence responsible for a range of Nuclear Physics phenomena.

Zyvex Labs and NIST have a well-established collaboration focused on atomically precise fabrication of single- or few-atom quantum devices based on buried dopant arrays that NIST is using to make solid-state AQS devices.  The solid-state AQS devices  are complementary to the cold atom and ion trap array AQS efforts and have some significant advantages over these techniques in that they can cover important portions of the experimental parameter space not accessible to the cold atom and ion trap arrays. While Quantum Computing will eventually be able to explore condensed matter and nuclear physics more thoroughly, the Universal Quantum Computers with millions of logical qubits required for these tasks may be at least a decade away. 

Zyvex Labs Dr. James H.G. Owen as Principal Investigator, will work primarily on the atomic precision fabrication techniques in support of NIST; Dr. Richard Silver Co-PI, will make and measure the AQS devices.  UMD, Prof. Zohreh Davoudi Co-PI, has key expertise in both the fundamental theory of Nuclear Physics and the co-design of AQS of lattice gauge theories.  In this collaborative project between industry, government, and academia, experimentalists and theorists will work together closely to efficiently utilize near-term quantum hardware to enable a high-impact technology, and advance Nuclear Physics through a promising solid-state AQS platform.