Scientists Have Held Individual Atoms for the Very First Time – Popular Mechanics

Scientists have trapped and observed individual atoms for what they say is the first time ever. The mechanism is a kind of supercooled atom rodeo, where individual atoms at nearly absolute zero are held in separate compartments before being released to interact in specific ways.

The researchers use optical tweezers as part of their setup. Atoms can be isolated and held in place with optical tweezers, and these researchers simultaneously used three separate tweezers. Once three atoms are held in laser lock, the researchers move all three setups together and then drop two of the gates. All three atoms are then free to interact in the remaining optical tweezer setup.

This process may sound simple, but it's actually complex and fussy to do. It was worth it: When three atoms interact, one possible outcome is that two of the atoms collide to form a molecule while the third gets a kick of energy as a result, Physics reports. This process, known as three-body recombination, occurs everywhere from laboratory plasmas to star-forming gas clouds, but despite its ubiquity, it had yet to be directly observed.

The researchers had fairly open-ended predictions for outcomes of this experiment, but they were still surprised by what happened. Atoms did act out the predicted three-body recombination, but they were much slower than the researchers predicted. They arent sure why this is, but they speculate that the tight confines in the optical tweezer setup has something to do with it. And other iterations showed that two atoms bonded without doing anything to the third, simply leaving it behind. (Sad trombones.)

Physics reports that the slow recombination rates are considered a promising and exciting outcome. The research teams predictions were based on existing knowledge about three-body recombination and theoretical models of how it works up close. For results to go against those predictions, it shows that something more interesting is at play than what scientists currently understand.

This is one reason why sophisticated nano-observation and manipulation are so important. Experimental quantum mechanics has been something of a black box due to the sheer difficulty of managing to look at anything that was happening. The introduction of optical tweezers for trapping atoms has opened remarkable opportunities for manipulating few-body systems, the researchers explain in their abstract.

Few-body problems are no relation to the three-body problem, beyond the fact that both have, well, a few things. Or are they related? In quantum mechanics, more than three interacting particles of certain kinds end up behaving in ways that are unpredictable and insoluble using traditional (for quantum mechanics) methods.

Springers wide-ranging Few-Body Systems journal defines it this way:

Thats a real twist there at the end.

Optical tweezers are just one of the ways scientists are getting up close and personal with individual particles for the first time, and supercooled environments allow for a variety of manipulations that previous generations couldnt have dreamed of. Now, the tools to explain a delayed three-body recombination could be within our graspor within an atoms grasp.

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Scientists Have Held Individual Atoms for the Very First Time - Popular Mechanics