Love and hate are usually thought to be purely human emotions but new research shows it may be traced, in metaphorical terms of course, to the very core of all things – atoms.
An international team of researchers, which includes Professor Peter Drummond and Dr Karen Kheruntsyan from The University of Queensland`s (UQ) School of Physical Sciences, have found particular arrangements of atoms behaving in “human” ways.
“Atomic correlations are like human relations,” said Professor Drummond, Director of the UQ node of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Quantum-Atom Optics (ACQAO).
“Often, you either love someone or hate them and depending on your feelings, you may try to be close to loved ones and avoid those you hate.
“Now we can tell exactly how much ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ atoms have for each other when confined to a wire-like waveguide at ultra-low temperatures.”
The rigorous theory employed by the team from Australia, The Netherlands and France has studied atomic correlations and shown if the atoms are confined to travel along a wire, they may either bunch together or avoid each other – hence the love/hate description.
The results, published in the prestigious USA Physics journal, Physical Review Letters, have surprised the international scientific world.
The problem was first studied in the 60s by Nobel Prize winner C N Yang, but no exact atomic correlations at finite temperature were found over the past 40 years.
The fact the problem was solved by a simple combination of mathematical ideas, without the use of supercomputers, is also an important achievement.
In layman’s terms, if a gas of certain type of atoms is confined to a spherical container and is cooled to a very low temperature all the atoms can suddenly enter into a recently discovered state of matter called a Bose-Einstein condensate.
In this state, all the atoms behave as waves, and “sing in unison” like a laser beam.
In contrast to this situation, if the motion of atoms is confined to a line, the gas surprisingly shows richer behaviour than in the three-dimensional case.
Not only can the gas show laser-like behaviour, but also the atoms can try to either bunch together or to avoid each other, depending on the density and temperature.
Possible applications for the research are to the studies of atom lasers, high-precision interferometry and development of “atom-chip” devices.
ACQAO involves research carried out at three Australian universities including UQ, the Australian National University and Swinburne University of Technology.
Media: For further information contact Ruth Wilson, ACQAO, on 02 6125 4203, 0418 967473 or Andrew Dunne, UQ Communications on 07 3365 2802.
