Bose-Einstein Condensate
Another state of matter was theorized by Albert Einstein back in 1924 in conjunction with a disregarded concept of a Bose gas published several years before. This state of matter is achieved when atoms collapse to their lowest quantum state and started to follow certain quantum rules. This state of matter could only be formed at temperatures nearing absolute zero and was predicted to behave nothing like other forms of matter discovered at that time. Unfortunately due to the lack of technology capable to cool matter to such a degree and could not be proven for another 71 years.
In 1995, the Bose-Einstein condensate was created at the University of Colorado by Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman. They succeeded to cool a cloud of rubidium of only 2000 atoms to 20x10^-9 degrees Kelvin which was enough to form this state of matter. They used several methods of cooling to achieve this including, laser cooling and magnetic evaporative cooling. They were awarded the Noble Prize in Physics 6 years later in 2001 for this significant achievement.
The Bose-Einstein condensate displays different properties as at such low quantum energy state, the atoms represent packets of waves instead of individual particles. When approaching absolute zero, the atoms join together to form a single wave. This gives this form of matter interesting and special properties. It has extremely high optical density thus light can be slowed down when going through the condensate. The lighted is slowed down dramatically to walking speed. This property can be used to model black holes and may even be used in quantum computing as memory or computing power.
The Bose-Einstein condensate displays different properties as at such low quantum energy state, the atoms represent packets of waves instead of individual particles. When approaching absolute zero, the atoms join together to form a single wave. This gives this form of matter interesting and special properties. It has extremely high optical density thus light can be slowed down when going through the condensate. The lighted is slowed down dramatically to walking speed. This property can be used to model black holes and may even be used in quantum computing as memory or computing power.