This is the most accurate image of an atom

This is the most accurate image of an atom

 


A mysterious quantum phenomenon reveals an image of an atom like never before. You can even see the difference between protons and neutrons.

The Relativistic Heavy Ion Accelerator (RHIC), from the Brookhaven Laboratory in the United States, is a sophisticated device capable of accelerating gold ions to a speed of up to 99.995% that of light. Thanks to him, it has recently been possible to verify, for example, Einstein's famous equation E=mc2.

IMAGE: BROOKHAVEN LABORATORY. Final view of a gold atom particles colliding in the STAR detector of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The beams travel in opposite directions at nearly the speed of light before colliding.

Now, researchers in this laboratory have shown how it is possible to obtain precise details about the arrangement of protons and neutrons in gold using a type of quantum interference never seen before in an experiment . The technique is reminiscent of the positron emission tomography (PET) scan that doctors use to peer into the brain and other anatomical parts.

BEYOND WHAT WAS SEEN BEFORE

No microscopic probe or X-ray machine is capable of peering into the innards of the atom, so physicists can only theorize what happens there based on the remains of high-speed collisions that take place in particle colliders , such as CERN 's LHC .

However, this new tool opens the possibility of making more precise inferences of protons and neutrons (which make up atomic nuclei) thanks to the quantum entanglement of particles produced when gold atoms rub against each other at high speed

 


PHOTO: BROOKHAVEN LABORATORY, UNITED STATES

The researchers   have shown how it is possible to obtain precise details about the arrangement of protons and neutrons in gold using a type of quantum interference never seen before in an experiment. 

At this scale, nothing can be observed directly because the very light used to carry out the observation interferes with the same observation. However, given enough energy, light waves can actually stir up pairs of particles that make up protons and neutrons, such as quarks and antiquarks. 

When two nuclei intersect within a few nuclear radii, a photon from one nucleus can interact through a virtual quark-antiquark pair with gluons from the other nucleus (gluons are mediators of the strong interaction, the force that binds nuclei). quarks inside protons and neutrons).

This allows for the equivalent of the first experimental observation of entanglement involving different particles, allowing images so precise that the difference between the place of neutrons and protons within the atomic nucleus can even begin to be appreciated.

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12 Comments

  1. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

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    1. There is no God as is currently imagined

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    2. Which God? Perun certainly exists, so does Thor. Hail the Old Gods and Goddesses! True Guardians of Nature.

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    3. Why do Christians always show up in Science articles and forums to tell us how important God is? If he's so great, what you worried about?

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    4. >The fool says in his heart, "there is no God."

      FYI, that is an ad hominem (a personal insult). Its a distraction that reframes all who oppose one opinion as 'fools' in order to not talk about the actual topic. It's a way to derail a converation. And you used a call to authority (the bible) to try and add force to your message. Can you try participating without the logical fallacies?

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    5. Why Can't God Speak For Him Self?

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    6. I agree. An atom is difficult to depict let alone photograph because they spin in a directon according to their polerization which gives the impression of oscillation on a flat serface,

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  2. Wow. Maybe hire someone who knows even a little bit about physics to write your articles? No, this is not a "picture of an atom"... it would be hard to come up with a more misleading explanation if you TRIED.

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    1. This is a simulated reconstruction of trajectories of secondary particles created during heavy ion collisions. It has nothing to do with an atom.

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  3. Non-scientific person here, but I don't see why the concept of God entered this discussion. Science is proveable through experiments, etc., and God is not. Why bring that belief system into this? And, with all the other comments, now I'm confused - is this an atom or not? Does anyone really know?

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  4. Perhaps I misunderstand, but if the two gold atoms are each traveling at 99.995% light speed, then their relative speeds must be greater that the speed of light.

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