Scientists at NIST and Colorado announced that they observed a new
state of matter this week. From the news release: “In
the current experiment, a gas of 500,000 potassium atoms was cooled to
temperatures below 50 billionths of a degree Celsius above absolute
zero (minus 459 degrees Fahrenheit) and then a magnetic field was
applied near a special “resonance” strength. This magnetic field coaxed
the fermion atoms to match up into pairs, akin to the pairs of
electrons that produce superconductivity, the phenomenon in which
electricity flows with no resistance. The Jin group detected this
pairing and the formation of a fermionic condensate for the first time
on Dec. 16, 2003.”
The experiment is published in the Jan. 30th issue of Physical Review Letters.
Update: See also an excellent Physics News Update discussion that explains developments in the field that made the experiment possible.
Update (2/11/04): Dr. Deborah Jin, who made the experiments,
will speak at Harvard on Wednesday, February 18, 2004, 4:30 p.m.
at the Joint Atomic Physics Seminar,
Jefferson Laboratory, Room 256, “Making Condensates with a Fermi Gas of Atoms.”
Update (3/3/04); The research is profiled in PhysicsWorld, with speculation on future directions.