Physicists have observed a new state of matter working in an elusive quantum gas wire.
The thin strings of gas, capable of binding giants, sound like objects worthy of a search in Grimms’s fairy tales. But versions of these materials are theoretically possible in physics – unfortunately, but in practice, they inevitably collapse in formation.
Researchers at Stanford University in the United States have now discovered that they can create such a material stable enough to withstand collapse in a cloud, even under considerable force. Moreover, they have identified a new state of matter in the workplace that has only been seen once – and never in quantum gas before.
Importantly, the quantum properties of this gas could gain a place in future generations of information technology.
The subject category at work even has a legendary title; a super Tonks-Girardeau gas. It consists of atoms cooled to the point where they begin to lose their sense of individual identity, forced to form a conga line kept under control by their collective forces.
Ideally, the attraction between the particles in this wire extracted from quantum gas could keep it in line even under constraint. That’s why physicists describe him as “super.”
However, inside the less perfect laboratory equipment, even the most delicately tuned super Tonks-Girardeau gases fail to remain stable for a very long time, contracting into a ball in the shortest time.
Physicist Benjamin Lev wondered if the disproportionate element would make a candidate more robust. With one of the largest magnetic forces on the periodic table, it might hold up a little longer with little support.
“The magnetic interactions we were able to add were very weak compared to the attractive interactions already present in the gas. So our expectations were that not much would change,” says Lev.
– Wow, we were wrong.
It seems that a dys Tonos-adjusted super tonks-Girardeau gas is exactly what the hero ordered. No matter what the team did to him, he kept his form.
Not even the winding of the quantum system in higher energy states managed to push the string into a disordered fog of quantized particles.
Investigating the mechanics of the process, the team soon noticed the hallmarks of a rather evasive phenomenon called multi-body quantum scarring.
This strange state of matter lies somewhere between quantum chaos and the predictability of old-fashioned classical physics and describes a world that seems counterintuitive at first glance.
A quarter of a century ago, it was discovered that in the pocket of a quantum system – where particles are everywhere and nowhere simultaneously and individual atoms lose their sense of self – predictable states may appear.
These scars resemble the ways worn on a football field. While players run the ball freely all over the field, some directions seem to be preferred over others.
The amazing thing about quantum scarring is how they match the thermodynamics. Raise the temperature on a group of particles and they will jump around more, redistributing heat until all bodies have a roughly equal weight.
Scars with many quantum bodies are contrary to this rule of equilibrium, having a preference for some states, no matter how much the enthusiasm around them increases.
The phenomenon has once been seen in a tail of rubidium atoms, but never in a quantum gas. So finding the signs of the state in a cooled string of dysprosium atoms has the potential to reveal much about how bodies in a quantum system share energy.
Given that we are destined for a future full of quantum technologies, we will need to know as much as possible about how to remove heat from tomorrow’s computers.
But quantum scars could be potentially useful for storing quantum information itself or to serve as a kind of laboratory simulator for studying quantum systems.
In addition to speculation on practical uses, Lev sees the work as fundamental to understanding the quantum landscape. Applications may come later.
“Comparing quantum science with where we were when we discovered what we needed to know to build chemical plants, say, it’s like working in the late 19th century right now,” says Lev.
A quantum scarred gas wire is just the beginning of a search for some truly amazing destinations.
This research was published in Science.