{"id":244144,"date":"2026-09-17T05:34:45","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T10:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/circular-rydberg-atoms-set-three-records-staying-stable-for-11-milliseconds"},"modified":"2026-09-17T05:34:45","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T10:34:45","slug":"circular-rydberg-atoms-set-three-records-staying-stable-for-11-milliseconds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/circular-rydberg-atoms-set-three-records-staying-stable-for-11-milliseconds","title":{"rendered":"Circular Rydberg atoms set three records, staying stable for 11 milliseconds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/circular-rydberg-atoms-set-three-records-staying-stable-for-11-milliseconds.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Rydberg atoms are considered promising building blocks for quantum computers and their precursors, quantum simulators. Researchers at the 5th Institute of Physics of the University of Stuttgart have achieved record values for the lifetime, size, and storage time of circular Rydberg atoms, a special form of Rydberg atom in which electrons move in a stable circular orbit around the nucleus. The findings were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-77764-x\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in Nature Communications.<\/p>\n<p>Quantum simulators replicate quantum systems for research purposes and are the precursors to future quantum computers. \u201cOne major challenge in developing high-performance quantum simulators was that Rydberg atoms are highly sensitive and remain stable for only a short time. We overcame this challenge and increased the stability of the atoms by a factor of 20,\u201d says Professor Dr. Tilman Pfau, head of the 5th Institute of Physics.<\/p>\n<p>Rydberg atoms are important building blocks for neutral-atom quantum technologies, which use neutral (i.e., uncharged) atoms that can be trapped and controlled with laser light. They are several thousand times larger than ordinary atoms and can therefore interact with one another over unusually long distances of about 5 \u00b5m. Although this is only about one-tenth the thickness of a human hair, it is a huge distance in the tiny world of atoms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rydberg atoms are considered promising building blocks for quantum computers and their precursors, quantum simulators. Researchers at the 5th Institute of Physics of the University of Stuttgart have achieved record values for the lifetime, size, and storage time of circular Rydberg atoms, a special form of Rydberg atom in which electrons move in a stable [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1523,48,1617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computing","category-particle-physics","category-quantum-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244144","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\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}