Stunt doubles: Ultracold atoms could replicate the electron 'jitterbug'
User rating: 4.6 / 5 after 15 vote(s)
A) Optical lattice of five laser beams trapping an atomic cloud. Color scale indicates cloud density: black is low, white high. B) Jittering motion of the atomic cloud in the optical lattice. The horizontal axis represents the spatial distribution of the cloud along one direction, while the vertical axis shows the variation of cloud density with time. Credit: NIST
Ultracold atoms moving through a carefully designed arrangement of laser beams will jiggle slightly as they go, two NIST scientists have predicted. If observed, this never-before-seen “jitterbug” motion would shed light on a little-known oddity of quantum mechanics arising from Paul Dirac’s 80-year-old theory of the electron.
Full story »
|
Sep 05, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet As humans, we have a very intuitive concept of time, and of the differences between the past, present, and future. But, as scientists Edward Feng of the University of California, Berkeley, and Gavin Crooks of the Lawrence ...
|
|
|
Sep 05, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet After 20 years of construction, a machine that could either verify or nullify the prevailing theory of particle physics is about to begin its mission. CERN's epic Large Hadron Collider (LHC) project currently involves 25 ...
|
|
|
Sep 05, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet (PhysOrg.com) -- A new report published on Friday, 5 September, provides the most comprehensive evidence available to confirm that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)'s switch-on, due on Wednesday next week, poses no threat to ...
|
|
Sep 04, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet Astronomical instruments needed to answer crucial questions, such as the search for Earth-like planets or the way the Universe expands, have come a step closer with the first demonstration at the telescope ...
|
|
Sep 04, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet Just as test pilots push planes to explore their limits, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology are probing the newest microscope technology to further improve measurement accuracy ...
|
|
|
|
PhysOrg Forum
Video
Editorials
Free Magazines
Newsletter
Goto Archive
Suggest a story idea
Send feedback
