I guess some theoretical chemistry basics omitted in the short article wouldn't hurt:
In order to describe chemical reactions or atomic arrangements in terms of wave equations one normally treats the motion of the nuclei (slow/heavy) and the motion of the electrons (fast/light) separately simplifying the Schrödinger equation to the Born-Oppenheimer approximation.
In introductory chemistry textbooks [0] a diatomic example is mostly used as an illustration, for >2 atoms usually only the ground state is considered. This is because (1) in a diatomic setting the vibrational degree of freedom in the nucleus reduces to 1 and (2) the ground state can be well distinguished from other electronic states.
However when studying (advanced theoretical) chemistry or material sciences, polyatomic arrangement with tightly packed electronic states and a lot of nuclear degrees of freedom are the norm and the theory of so-called conical intersection of electronic energies essential in that regard.
Early on this was taken into account as the Jahn-Teller distortion[1]: a kind of spontaneous symmetry-breaking which seemed exotic when it was first described in the 1930s; in that same vein Teller later proposed an ultrarare occurrence within a few vibrational periods (sub-femtoseconds) by which a loss of electronic excitation was not followed by a photon being emitted: radiationless decay. Now, in refined orbital models [2] this seems to be a normal state of affairs e.g. in organic chemistry.[3]
Because of the tiny time scales involved theoretically predicted phenomena like a Geometrical phase/Berry phase (which itself has the Foucault pendulum in relation to Earth's latitude as its mechanical analogue [4]) have not been observed, yet. So borrowing from a topological analogue (Dirac points) [5] a quantum simulation seemed feasible.
To be honest the actual paper [6] linked in the article was hard to follow through so I found a similar paper [7] where the presentation of the general idea is more clear and concise.
In order to describe chemical reactions or atomic arrangements in terms of wave equations one normally treats the motion of the nuclei (slow/heavy) and the motion of the electrons (fast/light) separately simplifying the Schrödinger equation to the Born-Oppenheimer approximation.
In introductory chemistry textbooks [0] a diatomic example is mostly used as an illustration, for >2 atoms usually only the ground state is considered. This is because (1) in a diatomic setting the vibrational degree of freedom in the nucleus reduces to 1 and (2) the ground state can be well distinguished from other electronic states.
However when studying (advanced theoretical) chemistry or material sciences, polyatomic arrangement with tightly packed electronic states and a lot of nuclear degrees of freedom are the norm and the theory of so-called conical intersection of electronic energies essential in that regard.
Early on this was taken into account as the Jahn-Teller distortion[1]: a kind of spontaneous symmetry-breaking which seemed exotic when it was first described in the 1930s; in that same vein Teller later proposed an ultrarare occurrence within a few vibrational periods (sub-femtoseconds) by which a loss of electronic excitation was not followed by a photon being emitted: radiationless decay. Now, in refined orbital models [2] this seems to be a normal state of affairs e.g. in organic chemistry.[3]
Because of the tiny time scales involved theoretically predicted phenomena like a Geometrical phase/Berry phase (which itself has the Foucault pendulum in relation to Earth's latitude as its mechanical analogue [4]) have not been observed, yet. So borrowing from a topological analogue (Dirac points) [5] a quantum simulation seemed feasible.
To be honest the actual paper [6] linked in the article was hard to follow through so I found a similar paper [7] where the presentation of the general idea is more clear and concise.
[0]https://chem.libretexts.org/Courses/Pacific_Union_College/Qu...
[1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jahn%E2%80%93Teller_effect
[2]https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/9426023.pdf
[3]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quenching_(fluorescence)
[4]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometric_phase#Foucault_pen...
[5]https://condensedconcepts.blogspot.com/2015/08/conical-inter...
[6]https://arxiv.org/pdf/2211.07320.pdf
[7]https://arxiv.org/pdf/2211.07319.pdf