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Super-cold gases reveal the secrets of electrons.
A team of physicists led by Rudolf Grimm used super-cold quantum gases to simulate the action of electrons in solids, bringing to life the theoretical quasiparticles described by Lev Landau. The experiment showed that these quasiparticles can exhibit both attractive and repulsive interactions, which highlights the key role of quantum statistics in their behavior.
An electron moving through a solid creates polarization in the environment due to its electric charge. Russian physicist Lev Landau expanded the description of such particles, taking into account their interaction with the environment, and introduced the concept of quasiparticles. More than a decade ago, a team led by Rudolf Grimm successfully created such quasiparticles by simulating their attractive and repulsive interactions with the environment.
To do this, the scientists used an ultra-cold quantum gas made of lithium and potassium atoms in a vacuum chamber. Using magnetic fields, they controlled the interaction between particles, and using radio-frequency pulses, they caused potassium atoms to attract or repel the surrounding lithium atoms.
Now scientists have been able to simultaneously create several such quasiparticles in a quantum gas and observe their interaction with each other. Rudolf Grimm noted: "We see an attractive interaction in bosonic polarons and a repulsive interaction in fermionic polarons. Here, quantum statistics play a crucial role."
This behavior, which in principle already follows from Landau's theory, was first demonstrated in an experiment. Theoretical calculations for this were performed by colleagues from Mexico, Spain, and Denmark.
A team of physicists led by Rudolf Grimm used super-cold quantum gases to simulate the action of electrons in solids, bringing to life the theoretical quasiparticles described by Lev Landau. The experiment showed that these quasiparticles can exhibit both attractive and repulsive interactions, which highlights the key role of quantum statistics in their behavior.
An electron moving through a solid creates polarization in the environment due to its electric charge. Russian physicist Lev Landau expanded the description of such particles, taking into account their interaction with the environment, and introduced the concept of quasiparticles. More than a decade ago, a team led by Rudolf Grimm successfully created such quasiparticles by simulating their attractive and repulsive interactions with the environment.
To do this, the scientists used an ultra-cold quantum gas made of lithium and potassium atoms in a vacuum chamber. Using magnetic fields, they controlled the interaction between particles, and using radio-frequency pulses, they caused potassium atoms to attract or repel the surrounding lithium atoms.
Now scientists have been able to simultaneously create several such quasiparticles in a quantum gas and observe their interaction with each other. Rudolf Grimm noted: "We see an attractive interaction in bosonic polarons and a repulsive interaction in fermionic polarons. Here, quantum statistics play a crucial role."
This behavior, which in principle already follows from Landau's theory, was first demonstrated in an experiment. Theoretical calculations for this were performed by colleagues from Mexico, Spain, and Denmark.
