They create exotic fifth state of matter and use it to explore the “quantum world”

There are four states of matter: gases, liquids, solids, and plasmas. However, there is also a fifth state of matter: Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC).

This fifth state was created by scientists 25 years ago in the laboratory. When a group of atoms cools down to near absolute zero, the atoms begin to group together, behaving as if they were a large “super atom.”

Bose-Einstein Condensates

The Bose-Einstein condensates stretch across the boundary between the everyday world, governed by classical physics, and the microscopic world, which follows the rules of quantum mechanics.

In quantum mechanics, a particle can behave as if it is rotating in two opposite directions at the same time, or as if it existed in two or more locations simultaneously.

Credit: ETH Zurich / Julian Léonard

Because they follow some of these quantum behaviors, the Bose-Einstein condensates may offer scientists clues to how quantum mechanics works, which could help solve mysteries like how to create a “theory of everything” that can explain how the cosmos works from the smallest to the largest scales.

Scientists now routinely create Bose-Einstein condensates in hundreds of laboratories around the world. However, a limitation that stands in the way of this investigation is the gravity. These “super atoms” are extraordinarily fragile and the configurations used to create them are incredibly delicate, so the pull of gravity felt on Earth can interrupt both, making it difficult to learn much about them.

To fix it, the researchers developed the Cold Atom Lab, which can generate Bose-Einstein condensates in microgravity orbiting the space station.

The Cold Atom Lab was launched in the year 2018, and is characterized by being small in size and requiring only a relatively small amount of energy, thus meeting the specific limitations on board the space station.

Generating an exotic fifth state of matter

Using the Cold Atom Lab, researchers in a new study found that they could increase the amount of time these condensates can analyze after the barriers that confine the material are turned off for more than a second. By comparison, on Earth, scientists would only have hundredths of a second for the same task.

Also, in microgravity, scientists discovered that they needed weaker forces to trap condensates. This, in turn, means that they could create condensates at lower temperatures. And, at these temperatures, exotic quantum effects would become more pronounced.

Moment distribution confirming the creation of a new state of matter aggregation, the Bose-Einstein condensate. Credit: NIST / JILA / CU-Boulder (Public domain)

So far with this study, researchers have created Bose-Einstein condensates using rubidium atoms. Eventually, they also aim to add potassium atoms to investigate what happens when two condensates mix, according to the study’s lead author. Robert Thompsonphysicist California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Furthermore, scientists are now looking to use the Cold Atom Lab to create spherical Bose-Einstein condensates, which can only be created in space, Thompson added.

Thompson said:

“In the past, our main ideas about the inner workings of nature came from particle accelerators and astronomical observatories; going forward, I think precision measurements with cold atoms will play an increasingly important role. ”

The research findings have been published in the journal Nature.

Source: Live Science