3nd3r Posted January 14, 2002 Share Posted January 14, 2002 By MALCOLM RITTER AP Science Writer Scientists say they've created a new state of matter in a super-cold gas, a step that might someday help researchers create ultra-powerful ``quantum'' computers. The work should also aid investigations into exotic behavior of atoms in solids, the kinds of phenomena used in computer disc drives and in superconductivity, the ability of some materials to conduct electricity without resistance. The new work is reported in the Jan. 3 issue of the journal Nature by Immanuel Bloch, senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany, and the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, with co-authors. The best-known states of matter are solid, liquid and gas; a peculiar kind of gas called plasma is another. The term is also applied, somewhat more loosely, to other categories of matter with basic properties that keep them from fitting neatly into those categories. Bloch and colleagues started with a Bose-Einstein condensate, an exotic kind of gas chilled to about minus 460 degrees. Such condensates are also considered a novel state of matter, and their creation a few years ago won the Nobel Prize in physics last year. Atoms in Bose-Einstein condensates flow without friction, forming a so-called superfluid. In a sense, they act in such coordinated fashion they lose their individual identities and form one big superatom. Bloch and colleagues broke up that behavior by zapping the condensate with laser beams. That created a latticelike pattern resembling high-energy mountains separated by low-energy valleys. Atoms became trapped in the valleys, no longer flowing freely. The effect is somewhat like the way an egg carton can hold marbles in its depressions. The resulting latticelike arrangement of atoms resembles that of a solid, but with the distances between atoms about 10,000-fold greater, commented physicist Eric Cornell of the National Institutes of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado in Boulder. So it opens new doors to studying the atomic behavior of solids, said Cornell, one of the recipient's of last year's Nobel physics prize for creating Bose-Einstein condensates. The work also represents a step toward quantum computation, which could take advantage of interactions between atoms, Henk Stoof of Utrecht University in the Netherlands wrote in a Nature commentary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kheldar Posted January 14, 2002 Share Posted January 14, 2002 chilled to about minus 460 degrees. I thought the universal constant was -273 degrees was the absolute mimimum temperate ... also one that could never be reaced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3nd3r Posted January 14, 2002 Author Share Posted January 14, 2002 Well that is what the article read.. and it came from a very reliable source :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
compgeek83 Posted January 17, 2002 Share Posted January 17, 2002 Originally posted by Kheldar I thought the universal constant was -273 degrees was the absolute mimimum temperate ... also one that could never be reaced. he didnt state if hes talking in celsius or farenheit, the number -273 sounds right for some reason though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cub-x Posted January 17, 2002 Share Posted January 17, 2002 The Absolute value of point-zero (the point where no atom moves anymore) is about 273.4 degrees below 0 c (Celcius), or 0 K (Kelvin)... That was, AFAIK, the lowest existing temperature. Buuuuut, this has never been reached and is suspected to be the lowest temp, calculated by cooling gasses and predicting/interpolating their graphs. But, ofcourse, correct me if I'm wrong! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElGato Posted January 17, 2002 Share Posted January 17, 2002 Originally posted by cub-x The Absolute value of point-zero (the point where no atom moves anymore) is about 273.4 degrees below 0 c (Celcius), or 0 K (Kelvin)... That was, AFAIK, the lowest existing temperature. Buuuuut, this has never been reached and is suspected to be the lowest temp, calculated by cooling gasses and predicting/interpolating their graphs. But, ofcourse, correct me if I'm wrong! Yer not wrong and -273.4C = -460.1F Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glowstick Posted January 17, 2002 Share Posted January 17, 2002 Wanted to say that too. US articles talk in Fahrenheit usually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StimpyX Posted January 17, 2002 Share Posted January 17, 2002 Has anyone else noticed how much of the esoteric physics work going on over the past few years comes along with a justification for how it could be used to make faster/better/smarter computers someday? Guess research for its own sake is dead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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