Rydberg Molecule Created For the First Time 127
krou writes "The BBC is reporting that the Rydberg molecule has been formed from two atoms of rubidium. Proven in theory, this is the first time it's been created, reinforcing the fundamental quantum theories of Enrico Fermi. Chris Greene, the theoretical physicist who first predicted that the Rydberg molecules could exist, said: 'The Rydberg electron resembles a sheepdog that keeps its flock together by roaming speedily to the outermost periphery of the flock, and nudging back towards the centre any member that might begin to drift away.' It's a sheepdog with a very short life-span, however; the longest lived molecule only lasted 18 microseconds. Vera Bendkowsky, who led the research, explained how they created the molecule: 'The nuclei of the atoms have to be at the correct distance from each other for the electron fields to find each other and interact. We use an ultracold cloud of rubidium — as you cool it, the atoms in the gas move closer together. We excite the atoms to the Rydberg stage with a laser. If we have a gas at the critical density, with two atoms at the correct distance that are able to form the molecule, and we excite one to the Rydberg state, then we can form a molecule.'"
TFA says "18 microseconds", not "18 seconds" (Score:5, Informative)
They really are short lived. 18 seconds would be an eternity for them, apparently.
(So, the summary here presently says "the longest lived molecule only lasted 18 seconds." whereas the article says "the longest lived Rydberg molecule survives for just 18 microseconds." Rather large difference.)
Re:TFA says "18 microseconds", not "18 seconds" (Score:5, Informative)
> What's seven orders of magnitude between friends?
Still out by an order of magnitude ;-)
Anyway, "very short" (as the original article says) in the context of particle physics has often meant measurements of the order of nanoseconds (say, nuclear bomb testing measurements) or even much much small for big bang (Planck time, etc).
Re:TFA says "18 microseconds", not "18 seconds" (Score:3, Informative)
Re:created on earth for the first time... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:TFA says "18 microseconds", not "18 seconds" (Score:3, Informative)
Hmm... not even HTML entities work: 18 µs = 18 s = 18 s (numeric entity)
Sorry, but the /. developers should be ashamed. They are the only site I know, that does not support UTF-8...
Re:What are the implications of this discovery? (Score:3, Informative)
NOT informative. I answered nothing not gleanable from the first few lines of the summary. It was a setup for a piss-poor attempt at Friday humor.
I swear, sometimes I feel like I have a "Mod me up inappropriately" note taped to my back.
Re:What are the implications of this discovery? (Score:3, Informative)
You must be new around here.
Re:What are the implications of this discovery? (Score:4, Informative)
Moderations should be made accurately, not some other fashion to game the karma system.
Basic facts about Rb_2 (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What are the implications of this discovery? (Score:5, Informative)
I RTFA, but can someone more well-versed in Physics explain what sort of implications this has?
Not my field, but this is my sense of what's going on:
1) Rydberg atoms have one electron in a very high state of excitation, and look like Bohr-model atoms, as the highly-excited single outer electron is so far from the rest of the atom that the combination of the inner electrons and the nuclear charge look like a point-charge, so the outer electron experiences a 1/r potential. This makes Rydberg atoms theoretically tractable with simple Bohr theory, which is always fun to play with.
2) Rydberg molecules are make from a Rydberg atom and a normal (unexcited) atom. My guess is that the normal atom is actually inside the "orbit" of the Rydberg atom's outer electron, so it will be slightly polarized by the core field, and the resulting dipole will interact with the electron to produce the bound state. Sounds like a job for linear response theory.
3) In general, testing systems under such extreme conditions allows us to measure precisely various properties of matter, like the fine structure constant or the electric charge or whatever. I don't know if anything like that will come out of this, but extreme systems often allow for precise tests of esoteric phenomena.
4) Yes, this does validate quantum theory. No, it probably doesn't have much in they way of practical application, but then again, it doesn't have to.
Re:whats worse than telling an unfunny joke? (Score:4, Informative)
What's not to laugh about that? You can't spell slaughter without laughter.
Reminds me of a story...
When I was a kid, my oldest sister was a park ranger at a nearby state park with a lake. One day they get radioed by an old guy on a canoe, who said he caught a body. Sure enough, he had... and in trying to retrieve his lure, he dislodged the body from whatever was holding it under, and it floated to the surface.
Apparently, he wasn't the first one to hook into it... just the first to retrieve it. When the puddlepolice boat motored out to him, he was furtively cutting lures our of the body and putting them in his tackle box.
Totally irrelevant, I know.
Re:What are the implications of this discovery? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:TFA says "18 microseconds", not "18 seconds" (Score:3, Informative)