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247 Zeptoseconds

posted by martyb on Monday October 19 2020, @06:15AM   Printer-friendly
from the Zepto? dept.

takyon writes:

New Smallest Time Measurement: How Long It Takes a Photon to Cross a Hydrogen Molecule

[Atomic] physicists at Goethe University led by Professor Reinhard Dörner have calculated a process that is shorter than femtoseconds for the first time ever: the measurement of how long it takes for a photon to cross a hydrogen molecule.

This is the shortest timespan that has ever been measured and amounts to about 247 zeptoseconds (a trillionth of a billionth of a second, or 10-21 seconds). To achieve this, the scientists irradiated a hydrogen molecule with X-rays from the X-ray laser source PETRA III at the Hamburg accelerator facility DESY. They set it up so that one photon was sufficient to eject both electrons out of the hydrogen molecule.

The scientists then calculated the interference pattern of the first ejected electron using the COLTRIMS reaction microscope. This apparatus was developed partially by Dörner and it makes the super speedy reaction processes in atoms and molecules visible.

Zeptosecond birth time delay in molecular photoionization (DOI: 10.1126/science.abb9318) (DX)

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 19 2020, @06:30AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 19 2020, @06:30AM (#1066345)

    "And that's why so many supposedly respectable physicists turned to hindu/buddhist mysticism.'

    And "string theory", (trying to) grabbing the straws.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 19 2020, @06:37AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 19 2020, @06:37AM (#1066348)

    And here I thought they were all turning to the dark (matter/energy) side.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 19 2020, @06:51AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 19 2020, @06:51AM (#1066349)

      "String theory" finally got shitcanned, even in general public sphere. I mean, seriously, gotta produce some results, string theory only produced hot air for 40+ years.

      Dark matter/energy is just ... Basically, observed results (far out in the universe) doesn't match up with the theories that seem to work pretty well locally (relatively speaking). So it's an on-going exploration.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by PiMuNu on Monday October 19 2020, @11:27AM

        by PiMuNu (3823) on Monday October 19 2020, @11:27AM (#1066388)

        Sociologically - string theory is "BS maths that you mere physicists can't understand" where as dark matter is "particle physics business as usual". So for the particle physicists at least, we can buy into dark matter in a way that we can't with string theory.

        Note this isn't a physics argument, but a sociological one.