Amazing stuff! Possibly a breakthrough! Perfecting the control over chemical reactions at the atomic level!
"A team from the University of Chicago has announced the first evidence for “quantum superchemistry” – a phenomenon where particles in the same quantum state undergo collective accelerated reactions. The effect had been predicted, but never observed in the laboratory.
The findings, published July 24 in Nature Physics, open the door to a new field. Scientists are intensely interested in what are known as “quantum-enhanced” chemical reactions, which could have applications in quantum chemistry, quantum computing, and other technologies, as well as in better understanding the laws of the universe. ... Another consequence is that the final molecules share the same molecular state. ... they saw evidence that the reaction was taking place as a three-body interaction more often than as a two-body interaction. That is, three atoms would collide; two would form a molecule, and the third remained single. But the third played some role in the reaction. ... Though this experiment was performed with simple, two-atom molecules, they plan to work their way up to handling larger and more complex molecules. ..."
From the abstract:
"Chemical reactions in the quantum degenerate regime are described by the mixing of matter-wave fields. In many-body reactions involving bosonic reactants and products, such as coupled atomic and molecular Bose–Einstein condensates, quantum coherence and bosonic enhancement are key features of the reaction dynamics. However, the observation of these many-body phenomena, also known as ‘superchemistry’, has been elusive so far. Here we report the observation of coherent and collective reactive coupling between Bose-condensed atoms and molecules near a Feshbach resonance. Starting from an atomic condensate, the reaction begins with the rapid formation of molecules, followed by oscillations of their populations during the equilibration process. We observe faster oscillations in samples with higher densities, indicating bosonic enhancement. We present a quantum field model that captures the dynamics well and allows us to identify three-body recombination as the dominant reaction process. Our findings deepen our understanding of quantum many-body chemistry and offer insights into the control of chemical reactions at quantum degeneracy."
UChicago scientists observe first evidence of ‘quantum superchemistry’ in the laboratory (primary news source) Breakthrough could point way to fundamental insights, new technology
Many-body chemical reactions in a quantum degenerate gas (no public access)
Fig. 1: Reactive coupling between atomic and molecular quantum fields.
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