Magnetic Frustration

摘要

The study of magnetic frustration has a long history in solid-state physics, but cold-atom systems now offer the possibility of simulating the problem with exquisite control. Islam et al. (p. 583) study a system of 16 trapped ions, using the Coulomb interactions between the ions to simulate exchange interactions present in magnetic systems. The measured spin correlations provide a window into the behavior of the system, as the effective magnetic field and the range of the interactions are tuned.