Hot Stuff: A usually ultracold, odd state forms when warm (Bose-Einstein condensate)

Science News ^ | Sept 30, 2006 | Peter Weiss

[Ben Mugged]

An exotic quantum state that had previously appeared only under conditions of astonishing cold has made its room-temperature debut, reports an international team of scientists. In related experiments, other researchers have produced a similar state in different, still-chilly materials but claim that their experiments will lead to room-temperature versions as well.

The new findings, unveiled in independent reports in the Sept. 28 Nature, reveal a bizarre new branch of an already exotic family of quantum states of matter known as Bose-Einstein condensates.

Previously produced Bose-Einstein condensates, which form only at temperatures near absolute zero, include a superfluid of liquid helium that flows with no friction ~snip~ In both the new reports, however, the experimenters used means other than extreme cold to make the condensates. The starting materials, which had not previously been formed into condensates, were what physicists call quasiparticles. According to Sergej O. Demokritov of the University of Münster in Germany, quasiparticles are ephemeral energy excitations that come and go inside solid materials, somewhat like the crests of waves in an ocean do. Quasiparticles can collide and exchange velocity as billiard balls do and otherwise behave fleetingly like standard particles, he notes.

[Doctor Stochastic]

With each other and with other particles.

[timer]

He+moon+return : You must be thinking of this return to the moon to mine He3 for fusion-concept. That's the HARD way to do it. Much easier with CF/LENR. It makes tritium in great profusion, a signature of CF/LENR. H3 has a 1/2 life of about 12.5 years, decaying by the beta process : one neutron decays into a proton, an electron(for charge balance)and an electron neutrino, thus making a He3 nucleus, which is stable. The He3 atom is a "fermion" in that is has an odd number of fermions(2P, 1N, 2e = 5)whereas the He4 is a "boson"(2P, 2N, 2e = 6). Since fermions LIKE to pair up into bosons(1/2+1/2=1 or 1F+1F=1B), the He4 atom is basically 3 pairs of bosons = completely inert gas. He3 is also an inert gas because of the outer 2 paired electrons filling the shell, BUT the unpaired neutron in the nucleus means it has a magnetic moment. That moment is tiny BUT at cryogenic temperatures it can pair up with another He3 atom and thus they orbit around each other like cooper pair electrons in superconductivity.....That simple fact has ENORMOUS consequences if you REALLY know your Quantum Mechanics. Wanna know more?