Left: Model picture with four fermionic modes in two sites. The modes are occupied or unoccupied. For example, we can start with two fermionic particles in the right well, by occupying the blue and green mode. If the particles repel each other, there's a good chance that one of the them will hop to the left well through the process of quantum tunneling through the barrier. It will then occupy the red or purple mode. This interplay of on-site interaction and hopping lies at the core of describing processes in physics and chemistry, ranging from the conductivity of metals to the binding between atoms in molecules. Right: The false-colored cross-shaped structures are the superconducting quantum bits. The colors correspond to the modes, so if we have two fermionic particles in the blue and red modes, the rightmost two quantum bits are excited. |