Physics

Spin glass

Mathematics

Quantum phase transition

Magnetic field

Statistics

Phase transition

Paramagnetism

Quantum critical point

Antiferromagnetism

Quantum simulator

Condensed matter physics

Spins

Ising model

Quantum computer

Quantum mechanics

Realization (probability)

Quantum phases

Quantum

Science

Understanding magnetic phases in quantum mechanical systems is one of the essential goals in condensed matter physics, and the advent of prototype quantum simulation hardware has provided new tools for experimentally probing such systems. We report on the experimental realization of a quantum simulation of interacting Ising spins on three-dimensional cubic lattices up to dimensions 8 × 8 × 8 on a D-Wave processor (D-Wave Systems, Burnaby, Canada). The ability to control and read out the state of individual spins provides direct access to several order parameters, which we used to determine the lattice's magnetic phases as well as critical disorder and one of its universal exponents. By tuning the degree of disorder and effective transverse magnetic field, we observed phase transitions between a paramagnetic, an antiferromagnetic, and a spin-glass phase.

Phase transitions in a programmable quantum spin glass simulator