Physicists Finally Measure a Long Theorized Molecule Made From Light And Matter

The part of 'glue' between atoms has been caught by physicists.

The University of Innsbruck physicist says that they have succeeded in polarizing several atoms together in a controlled way.

A trade of charges as a kind of'superglue' is one of the ways in which atoms connect to formmolecules.

Some share their negatively charged electrons and form bonds like the simplest gasses of two conjoined oxygen atoms, floating in space. Some atoms attract by having different charges.

The arrangement of charges around the atom can be changed. In theory, a shower of appropriately directed photons can cause electrons to bond.

Philipp Haslinger is a physicist from the Technical University of Vienna.

The atom suddenly has a positive and a negative side when the positive charge is shifted in one direction.

Mira Maiwger and colleagues used ultracold rubidium atoms to show that light can polarize atoms in a similar way.

Maiwger says that you have to conduct the experiment very carefully to be able to measure it.

The attractive force is gone if atoms have a lot of energy. Ultracold atoms were used.

A cloud of around 5,000 atoms was trapped in a single plane by the team.

The rubidium particles start acting collectively and sharing properties like they're in the fifth state of matter, but not quite.

The atoms felt a number of forces. They can be pushed along the light beam by radiation pressures. The atom can be drawn back to the most intense part of the beam.

The researchers had to do some careful calculations to detect the attraction between atoms.

After they switched off the magnetic field, the atoms free-fell for 44 milliseconds before they reached the laser light field.

The researchers were able to measure different densities because of the cloud's expansion.

Up to 18 percent of the atoms were missing from the observational images that Maiwger and colleagues took. The rubidium atoms were kicked out of their cloud by light-assistedcollisions.

It was shown that light was scattering off the other atoms as well. The light touched the atoms and gave them a different color.

The atoms were either attracted or repelled by the light. They were either pulled towards the area of lower light or higher light.

According to Maiwger and colleagues, the light triggered interaction is an effective particle-particle interaction.

It doesn't trap atoms at a fixed position, but draws them to regions of maximum particle density.

The force gathering the atoms is much weaker than the force we're familiar with. Emission patterns and resonance lines can be changed by this feature.

It could help explain how the universe works.

Small forces can play a big part in space.

We were able to show for the first time that radiation can cause a force between atoms, which may help to shed light on astrophysical scenarios that have not yet been explained.

The research was published in a journal.