Here ’s your dose of mind - bending physics for the mean solar day . In 1970 , a unseasoned Soviet physicist name Vitaly Efimov proposed a tercet of ultracold particle could arrange themselves in an “ infinite nesting - doll configuration . ” Scientists have now write compelling grounds that this res publica of thing , once send packing by physicist , altogether does exist .
Like most of us , physicists themselves were perplexed when they first heard of what is called now called the Efimov country . But Efimov ’s maths has held up in the four and a one-half decade since , and technical feeler have even allowed physicist to achieve the Efimov State Department in a lab .
The balance of force acting on three particle allows for the Efimov res publica . In her slice forQuanta Magazine , journalist Natalie Wolochover valorously wades into the quantum mechanics behind it :
The nesting - doll characteristic — shout out discrete scale invariance — uprise from a correspondence in the equation describing the forces between three particles . If the particle fulfill the equating when space a sure distance apart , then the same particles space 22.7 times further aside were also a solution . This issue , called a “ scaling factor , ” emerged from the mathematics as inexplicably as pi , the ratio between a circle ’s perimeter and diam .
“ It ’s like layers of an onion , ” [ physics prof ] Randy Hulet said . “ You see particle at one bed . Peel the layer away , and you see that there ’s a molecule there 22.7 times small . Every time you peel away a bed , you find oneself another speck . ”
Totally flakey , huh ? Well the Efimov commonwealth only happens at ultracold temperatures — like 10 - one-billionth of a degree above Absolute Zero — when all types ofweird things happen to matter . In 2006 , physicists at the University of Innsbruck in Austria make do to supercool three cesium atoms that did in fact configure as Efimov predicted . Though that did n’t prove the weirdest part of the Efimov state , of course , which is the 22.7 scaling essence .
But now we have it : the same chemical group of Austrian physicists has honor a 2nd Efimov trimer , exactly 22.7 times bigger . Two other groups have also observe Efimov trimer at different sizes by substitute a lithium atom for one of three cesiums . Evidence from three separate research groups is pretty convincing .
The Efimov state may still be dark sounding , but it reveals a law for how molecules in the universe interact , a law that allows for , in Wolochover ’s words , “ a geometric progression of evermore - enormous trios of particles , cross in a theoretically unnumerable chronological sequence from the quantum shell to ( if the particles were cold enough ) the size of the universe and beyond . ” It ’s pretty cold — but also pretty cool . [ Physical Review LettersviaQuanta Magazine , Scientific American ]
Top image : The machine used to trap and cool ultracold cesium atom . C. Lackner / Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information
Physics
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