It looks like 2020 is shaping up to be a bang-up twelvemonth to see how atoms interact up close . In January , researchers showedthe creation of chemical bondsamong atomic number 75 atom . Now a different squad have " bind " atoms in place and discovered previously unidentified interactions among them .
As reported inPhysical Review Letters , researchers from the University of Otago have see the interaction of three rubidium mote . Each mote was ensnare , isolated , and placed in a chamber with no other particle indoors and at a temperature just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero . The goal was to study in particular how a single molecule come to be . The squad brought the three trap atoms together and followed their fundamental interaction with a microscope camera . Two of the atoms merged into a speck and all three gained get-up-and-go from the reaction .
“ Two atom alone ca n’t form a molecule , it takes at least three to do chemistry . Our oeuvre is the first fourth dimension this basic process has been studied in closing off , and it turns out that it pass on several surprising outcome that were not await from premature measurement in declamatory clouds of atoms , ” postdoctoral research worker Marvin Weyland , who spearheaded the experimentation , said in astatement .
The novelty of the approaching is that they observed this interaction at a single event level , furnish a clearer view of what ’s happening . former studies have looked at many - atom events to consider molecule formation in a different way .
“ By working at this molecular story , we now eff more about how atoms clash and react with one another . With development , this proficiency could provide a way to build and control single molecules of particular chemicals , ” Weyland explicate .
The study highlights the need for revision in the theoretical framework . The fundamental interaction claim much longer than expected . This might be due to a subtle interplay between nuclear forces and how the researchers isolated the atoms , but the team will have to follow - up with further inquiry to feel out if this is indeed the case .
