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The fifth state of matter—the ultracold Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC)—has been an invaluable tool in unlocking the secrets of quantum physics.
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Now, scientists from Columbia University have created a molecular sodium-cesium BEC that is dipolar, opening the door to dozens of applications for the exotic matter.
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To achieve this discovery, the research team used two microwave fields to create the BEC, which lasts a full two seconds (a long time in quantum physics research).
In the mid-1920s, two absolute giants in the world of physics, Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein, theorized the existence of a strange quantum state of matter that would eventually be named in their honor: the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). 20th-century luminaries realized that if particles were cooled to ultracold temperatures—just fractions of a degree away from absolute zero (-459.67 °F)—and held at low density, they would form a indistinguishable whole.
Fast forward some 70 years later, scientists from the University of Colorado at Boulder proved Einstein and Bose right. Since then, BECs have been a vital tool for exploring the quantum properties of atoms, and a series of advances – whether cooling the particles or making them form diatomic molecules – have made them increasingly useful in the search for the fundamental . the physics that drives the universe.
Now, physicists from Columbia University – in collaboration with Radboud University in the Netherlands – have taken the next step in this century-long BEC journey by creating a sodium-cesium condensate that is only five nanoKelvin above absolute zero. While this is an impressively cold temperature, the most important part of this impressive piece of experimental physics is that the resulting BEC is dipolar, meaning it has both a positive and a negative charge. Team used a previously reviewed technique that uses microwaves to pass the “BEC threshold,” according to a press release. The results of this study were published this week in the diary Nature.
“By controlling these dipolar interactions, we hope to create new quantum states and phases of matter,” Columbia postdoc Ian Stevenson, a co-author of the study, said in a press release.
Microwaves are usually associated with heating things up, but study co-author Tijs Karman from Radboud University suggested that microwaves can act as shields and essentially protect molecules from lossy collisions as hot molecules are removed from a sample, which has the effect of general cooling. The team tried the microwave technique in 2023, but this new study added a second microwave field that proved more effective in creating the desired BEC.
“We have a really good idea of the interactions in this system, which is also critical for next steps like exploring many-body dipolar physics,” Karman, who was also a co-author of the study, said in a statement to Press. . “We have come up with schemes to control interactions, tested them in theory and implemented them in experiment. It was truly an amazing experience to see these microwave ‘shielding’ ideas being realized in the lab.”
The creation of this dipolar BEC opens the door to the creation of many other forms of exotic matter, such as “exotic dipolar dots, self-organized crystalline phases, and rotating dipolar liquids in optical lattices,” according to the paper. But these are just a few of the dozens of potential applications this new BEC can help make possible. Because this experiment enables precise control over quantum interactions — according to Jun Ye, an ultracold scientist at UC-Boulder — the implications for quantum chemistry could also be quite profound.
The universe’s little-known fifth state of matter continues to surprise us more than a century after its surprising entry into the known world of physics.
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