1/27/2024 0 Comments Cool physics phenomena![]() Physicists used these two properties to trap clouds of atoms such as rubidium and eventually lower their temperature to picokelvins-trillionths of a degree above absolute zero. Atoms also experience forces when placed in nonuniform magnetic fields. Light can interact with atoms and thus change their energies. Quantum condensates were theoretically predicted in the mid-1920s, but it was only in the late 1990s that experimental physicists kicked off a revolution (recognized with two Nobel Prizes) by using lasers and magnets to reach sufficiently low temperatures for the transition to these phases of matter to happen. Such a system-a condensate in physics parlance-is a fundamentally quantum state of matter. What happens then with a large collection of very cold atoms that behave like a large collection of waves? They can all align and overlap to form a single wave, something that was historically called a macroscopic wave function. If we lower temperatures to much less than a single kelvin, the wave nature of matter becomes more pronounced and wavelike behaviors more important. Properties of these so-called matter waves depend on their temperature at high temperatures they have short wavelengths and look and behave particlelike because all the peaks and valleys are so close together that they cannot be told apart. One of the revelations of quantum mechanics is that any object can be seen as a wave (even you!) when an appropriate experimental test is used. ![]() In its brief history, ultracold atomic experimental research has enhanced physicists’ understanding of a truly vast array of important phenomena. The number of applications for these systems as such simulators is nothing short of overwhelming, ranging from engineering artificial crystals to providing new platforms for quantum computing. Ultracold atomic systems have, in the past 30 years, proven to be amazing quantum simulators. As renowned physicist Richard Feynman argued, to fully understand nature, we need quantum means of simulation and computation. When it comes to furthering our overall understanding of the physical world, ultracold quantum gases are awfully promising.
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