Stable atoms of pion helium have been obtained. Free Technical Library News

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Stable atoms of pion helium obtained

27.05.2020

After almost eight years of research, a group of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, Germany, for the first time managed to obtain stable and long-lived atoms of exotic matter, the so-called "pionic" helium, a helium atom in which one of the electrons was replaced by a subatomic particle - a pion in a certain quantum state. In this form, the pion can exist a thousand times longer than it exists in other types of matter, and this gives scientists the opportunity to more closely study this particle, which plays an important role in ensuring the stability and decay of atomic nuclei, using the method of high-precision laser spectroscopy.

Pions belong to a family of particles called mesons. It is mesons that are responsible for the emergence of strong interactions between the "standard blocks" of atomic nuclei, neutrons and protons. Protons with the same electric charge repel each other under normal conditions, and only the forces of strong nuclear interactions are able to bind and keep them within the atomic nucleus. Mesons, which consist of two quarks, differ significantly in structure from protons and neutrons, which consist of three quarks.

The possibility of the existence of exotic "pionic" helium atoms was theoretically predicted as early as 1964, but until recently none of the scientists has been able to obtain such atoms experimentally. And now, thanks to the work of German researchers, scientists around the world have a completely new area for further research.

For eight years, German scientists have been trying to find evidence for the existence of "pion" helium atoms. To do this, they used a tank filled with cooled helium in a liquid superfluid state. The main difficulty that led to the long duration of the experiments was to find the wavelength of laser light at which the "kicked" pion knocks out an electron from an excited helium atom and takes its place. Naturally, such atoms exist for some time and decay, and it is these "fragments" of atoms that became proof of the existence of exotic atoms of "pion" helium.

Theoretical scientists, despite a lot of research in this direction, have not been able to calculate the wavelength of light, under the influence of which helium atoms will go into one of the stable excited states, and the pion will make a "quantum jump" of a certain type, replacing the electron. So scientists used three complex laser systems one after the other until they found the right wavelength by simple enumeration.

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Random news from the Archive

Jump weights 02.03.2003

In the memoirs of Baron Munchausen, a certain runner appears, usually running with a cannonball tied to his legs and slightly slowing down his too fast run. He unhooked this cargo only in case of extremely urgent parcels.

A similar sport - standing long jump with two weights - existed in Ancient Greece. The athlete held lead or stone weights in each hand and waved them while jumping. This is known from surviving texts and drawings - weights were used at the first Olympic Games. But historians remained at a loss: if the competition was for the length of the jump, why were weights needed, which, it seems, could only reduce the flight range?

Specialists from the University of Manchester (England), simulating such jumps on a computer and in real life - on students, showed that the weights actually increase the distance of the jump. Throwing forward while jumping hands with two "dumbbells" weighing three kilograms each, the athlete can, thanks to increased inertia, increase his initial speed by two percent. If, at the end of the jump, he swings the weights back, then the total gain in the length of the jump will be at least 17 centimeters. However, an increase in the total weight of the "dumbbells" over 10 kilograms worsens the results.

Archaeologists usually find such cargoes weighing from one to five kilograms.

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