IMAGE: Supersolids are fluid and hard at the same time. Physicists from Innsbruck and Geneva have for the first time studied what happens when such a state is taken out of … sight more
Credit: IQOQI Innsbruck / Harald Ritsch
Last year, more than half a century after initial theoretical proposals, researchers in Pisa, Stuttgart and Innsbruck independently succeeded for the first time in creating superstitions known as ‘uses ultracold quantum gases of highly magnetic lanthanide atoms. This condition is, in a sense, hard and melting at the same time. “As a result of quantum effects, very cold gas of atoms can spontaneously develop both crystalline order of solid crystals and particle flow as superfluid quantum liquid, ie liquid capable of flowing without any reaction” explained Francesca Ferlaino from the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Department of Experimental Physics at the University of Innsbruck. “Much simpler, dipolar supersolid can be imagined as a series of quantum bolts that communicate with each other through a superfluid background pool,” says Thierry Giamarchi, a theoretical physicist from the University of Geneva.
Incredibly reversible
In Physics of nature, the researchers are now reporting how such a supersolid state will react if the superfluid pool between the droplets is drained by control of the external magnetic field. “We were able to show that, without the tank, the droplets quickly lose knowledge about each other and begin to behave as independent small quantum systems – they drop. The supersolid turning into the norm, “says Maximilian Sohmen of Francecsa Ferlaino ‘s team. “This‘ solid ’, however, is still soft, it can move and support many receptions, called phones”, adds Philipp Ilzhöfer from the Innsbruck team. “This makes this state a very interesting but complex subject of study with strong links to solid state physics and other fields.”
Perhaps surprisingly, the Innsbruck physicists were also able to reverse this tedious process: When they refilled the back pool, the droplets refreshed their contact by tunneling particles and restoring superstition.
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The research received financial support from the Austrian Science Fund FWF, the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, the Swiss National Institute of Science and the European Union.
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