BRMEN – German physicists have recently been reported to have produced the coldest ever recorded temperature of 38 trillion degrees above absolute zero. A unique experiment by dropping a quantum gas, then turning the magnetic field on and off to bring the atoms to a near complete stop.
Measured as -273.15 degrees Celsius, absolute zero is the coldest possible temperature on a thermodynamic scale, representing the point at which there is no atomic motion or heat at all. However, it is impossible for scientists to reach that point because we can never remove all the kinetic energy from the atoms in a system.
But a few years ago, scientists were consistently close, with a team from Harvard University studying the coldest chemical reaction ever to occur at 500 nanoKelvins or 500 millionths of a degree above absolute zero. And the Cold Atom Laboratory on the International Space Station has conducted experiments at just 100 nanoKelvins.
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However, those temperatures are still comfortable compared to those achieved in the latest study. A German team has now recorded an effective temperature of just 38 picoKelvin or 38 trillion degrees above absolute zero.
To do so, the researchers started with a cloud of 100,000 rubidium atoms trapped in a magnetic field in a vacuum. They then cooled it to form a quantum gas called Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC), in which the atoms began to act essentially like one large atom, allowing strange quantum effects to become visible on a macro scale.
However, at two per billion degrees above absolute zero, this is not cold enough. So, the team ran an experiment at the Bremen Drop Tower research facility, dropping a 120-meter BEC trap. During the free fall, the team turned the gas-filled magnetic field off and on again and again.
When the magnetic field is turned off, the gas begins to expand, and when it is turned on again, the gas is forced to contract again. This switch slows the expansion of the gas to an almost complete stop, and reducing the velocity of these molecules effectively reduces the temperature.
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While this experiment only managed to reach this record-breaking temperature for up to two seconds, simulations show that it is possible to maintain it for up to 17 seconds in a weightless environment, such as in outer space.
Editor : Marcellus Widiarto
Writer : Selocahyo Basoeki Utomo S
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