Simply Weird Stuff: Making Supersolids with Ultracold Gas Atoms (IMAGE)

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Simply Weird Stuff: Making Supersolids with Ultracold Gas Atoms

Caption

This is an artistic rendition of a supersolid made from two different types of ultracold atoms. The atoms are arranged in a regularly repeating pattern like a solid, but also can move frictionlessly like a superfluid. Yellow shape represents the electrical forces that the atoms feel, which vary in a regular pattern. Correspondingly. the density of the atoms (represented by the thickness of the spheres) also varies in a periodic fashion.

Credit

Ludwig Mathey, NIST/JQI

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