Date: 27/02/2018 19:41:36
From: Tau.Neutrino
ID: 1193618
Subject: "Giant atoms" swallow other atoms to form new state of matter

https://newatlas.com/giant-atoms-rydberg-polarons/53574/

As tiny as they are, there’s a relatively large amount of empty space inside an atom. Now, scientists from Austria and the US have filled in some of those gaps, creating a new state of matter in the form of “giant atoms” filled with other atoms.

more…

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Date: 27/02/2018 19:43:52
From: Tau.Neutrino
ID: 1193621
Subject: re: "Giant atoms" swallow other atoms to form new state of matter

Hopefully the expanding universe wont be swallowed by a giant atom waiting a long way away in space.

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Date: 27/02/2018 19:51:08
From: Bubblecar
ID: 1193627
Subject: re: "Giant atoms" swallow other atoms to form new state of matter

Tim Ferguson apologises for ‘vile bullying campaign’ against journalist

Candace Sutton alleges the comedian sent her obscene drawings and sexist letters

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/feb/27/tim-ferguson-apologises-for-vile-bullying-campaign-against-journalist

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Date: 27/02/2018 19:52:14
From: Bubblecar
ID: 1193631
Subject: re: "Giant atoms" swallow other atoms to form new state of matter

Sorry…

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Date: 28/02/2018 16:05:41
From: mollwollfumble
ID: 1193980
Subject: re: "Giant atoms" swallow other atoms to form new state of matter

Tau.Neutrino said:


https://newatlas.com/giant-atoms-rydberg-polarons/53574/

As tiny as they are, there’s a relatively large amount of empty space inside an atom. Now, scientists from Austria and the US have filled in some of those gaps, creating a new state of matter in the form of “giant atoms” filled with other atoms.

more…

> In this case, the starting point was a cloud of strontium atoms. After cooling them into a Bose-Einstein condensate, the team used a laser to energize one of the atoms, which lifts a single electron in that atom into a highly-excited state. The excited electron begins orbiting the nucleus at a much larger distance than usual, creating a Rydberg atom.

> This electron’s orbit becomes so large that other strontium atoms can easily fit inside it. The team observed up to 170 atoms crammed inside one Rydberg atom, but that number can depend on the Rydberg atom’s radius and the density of the Bose-Einstein condensate

This is, ah new. I haven’t heard of anything like it. It doesn’t resemble degenerate matter in a white dwarf start. By comparison, the new idea of cramming 170 ground state atoms inside a single excited atom is startlingly mundane.

> Hopefully the expanding universe wont be swallowed by a giant atom waiting a long way away in space.

I’m not even sure that that would be a problem. Would we know the difference?

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