Colloquia

Chiral matter: from quarks to quantum computing

Chirality is a ubiquitous concept in modern science, from particle physics to biology. In quantum physics, chirality is linked to the topology of gauge fields due to the quantum chiral anomaly. While the chiral anomaly is usually associated with the short-distance behavior, recently it has been realized that it affects also the macroscopic behavior of systems possessing chiral fermions. In particular, the local imbalance betweenleft- and right-handed fermions in the presence of magnetic field induces the non-dissipative transport of electric charge (“the Chiral Magnetic Effect”). In heavy ion collisions, there is an ongoing search for this effect at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at BNL, with a dedicated isobar run completed in June of 2018, and analysis results expected later in 2019. Recently, the Chiral Magnetic Effect has been discovered in ZrTe5 and other materials possessing chiral quasi-particles.This observation opens a path towards a “chiral qubit” potentially capable of operating at room temperature, and at much higher frequencies than the superconducting quantum qubits.