{"id":213871,"date":"2025-05-13T02:05:55","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T07:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/mit-physicists-snap-the-first-images-of-free-range-atoms"},"modified":"2025-05-13T02:05:55","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T07:05:55","slug":"mit-physicists-snap-the-first-images-of-free-range-atoms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/mit-physicists-snap-the-first-images-of-free-range-atoms","title":{"rendered":"MIT physicists snap the first images of \u201cfree-range\u201d atoms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/mit-physicists-snap-the-first-images-of-free-range-atoms2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>MIT physicists have captured the first images of individual atoms freely interacting in space. The pictures reveal correlations among the \u201cfree-range\u201d particles that until now were predicted but never directly observed. Their findings, <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.aps.org\/prl\/accepted\/5a079Y60Lf016e80733215023fc6b429b2f7d4405\" target=\"_blank\">appearing today in the journal <em>Physical Review Letters<\/em><\/a>, will help scientists visualize never-before-seen quantum phenomena in real space.<\/p>\n<p>The images were taken using a technique developed by the team that first allows a cloud of atoms to move and interact freely. The researchers then turn on a lattice of light that briefly freezes the atoms in their tracks, and apply finely tuned lasers to quickly illuminate the suspended atoms, creating a picture of their positions before the atoms naturally dissipate.<\/p>\n<p>The physicists applied the technique to visualize clouds of different types of atoms, and snapped a number of imaging firsts. The researchers directly observed atoms known as \u201cbosons,\u201d which bunched up in a quantum phenomenon to form a wave. They also captured atoms known as \u201cfermions\u201d in the act of pairing up in free space \u2014 a key mechanism that enables superconductivity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MIT physicists have captured the first images of individual atoms freely interacting in space. The pictures reveal correlations among the \u201cfree-range\u201d particles that until now were predicted but never directly observed. Their findings, appearing today in the journal Physical Review Letters, will help scientists visualize never-before-seen quantum phenomena in real space. The images were taken [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,1617,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-213871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-particle-physics","category-quantum-physics","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213871\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}