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posted by martyb on Friday February 21 2020, @01:20AM   Printer-friendly
from the itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny-tweezers dept.

Phys.org:

In a first for quantum physics, University of Otago researchers have "held" individual atoms in place and observed previously unseen complex atomic interactions.

[...] "Two atoms alone can't form a molecule, it takes at least three to do chemistry. Our work is the first time this basic process has been studied in isolation, and it turns out that it gave several surprising results that were not expected from previous measurement in large clouds of atoms," says Postdoctoral Researcher Marvin Weyland, who spearheaded the experiment.

For example, the researchers were able to see the exact outcome of individual processes, and observed a new process where two of the atoms leave the experiment together. Until now, this level of detail has been impossible to observe in experiments with many atoms.

The ability to control matter at this level promises advances in many fields.

More information: L. A. Reynolds et al. Direct Measurements of Collisional Dynamics in Cold Atom Triads, Physical Review Letters (2020). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.073401


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2020, @05:57AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2020, @05:57AM (#960610)

    That one is debatable, as it would be Na+ and Cl- and the bonding would be mostly electrostatic. However N2, O2, H2, Cl2, and others are covalently bonded molecules, so that statement is garbage.

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by maxwell demon on Friday February 21 2020, @08:15AM (2 children)

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Friday February 21 2020, @08:15AM (#960634) Journal

    You are quite fast with your qualification as garbage.

    A molecule has less energy than two separated atoms. So where do those two atoms deposit their surplus energy when they go into a bound state?

    Oh sure, put it into kinetic energy … but then, for that you need to change momentum. But not only energy, but also momentum is conserved. So where do you put that momentum difference?

    A third atom that gets the recoil would sure come handy here, wouldn't it?

    FTFA:

    When the three atoms approach each other, two form a molecule, and all receive a kick from the energy released in the process.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2020, @09:20AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2020, @09:20AM (#960640)

      They can, and quite often do, emit the energy as a photon.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by maxwell demon on Friday February 21 2020, @05:20PM

        by maxwell demon (1608) on Friday February 21 2020, @05:20PM (#960732) Journal

        While there are chemical reactions that emit light, those are the exception, not the rule. The reason being simply that atoms as a whole are electrically neutral.

        You are probably confusing it with atomic excitation (which involve individual electrons in an atom, that is, charged particles). With those, photon emission is indeed quite common. But that's a different process.

        --
        The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.