PHYSICAL REVIEW FOCUS 18 November 2005 http://focus.aps.org/
PHYSICAL REVIEW FOCUS 18 November 2005 http://focus.aps.org/
David Ehrenstein, American Physical Society
Introductions to the Focus stories of the past week;
visit http://focus.aps.org for the complete stories.
Matter-Antimatter Molecules
Positronium is the only atom ever made in a lab containing both matter
and antimatter, composed of just an electron and a positron
(anti-electron) bound together without a nucleus. Now, in a dense but
short-lived gas of such atoms, researchers have observed interactions
between them--and may have produced the first positronium molecules,
each composed of two atoms. Reported in the 4 November PRL, the
experiments represent another step toward creating new kinds of
"artificial matter," whose properties physicists are eager to study,
and that could ultimately lead to a gamma ray laser.
(D. B. Cassidy et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 195006)
Link to the paper: http://link.aps.org/abstract/prl/v95/e195006/
COMPLETE Focus story at http://focus.aps.org/story/v16/st16
Also from PRL (story from AIP's Physics News Update;
QUANTUM SOLVENT
Story at http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/2005/split/754-3.html
(K. von Haeften et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 215301)
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Copyright 2005, The American Physical Society.
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