A Rydberg atom has an electron that is far away from the nucleus. Credit: TU Wien Researchers have created an extremely exotic state of matter. The atoms have a diameter that is a hundred times larger than normal. Time crystals, originally proposed by Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek in 2012, have now been successfully created using … Read more
Scientists have blown up some atoms like balloons to create an extreme version of an ‘impossible’ state of matter. By bombarding rubidium atoms with lasers, physicists have forced them into an airy Rydberg state. This experiment resulted in an exotic state of matter known as a time crystal. According to the team, this opens up … Read more
Experimental protocol and mean-field phase diagram. Credit: Physics (2024). DOI file: 10.1038/s41567-024-02542-9 A crystal is a system of atoms that repeats itself in space at regular intervals: at every point, the crystal looks exactly the same. In 2012, Nobel Prize winner Frank Wilczek asked the question: Could there also be a time crystal, an object … Read more