Scientists can now reliably create a strange quantum object called a domain wall. The discovery could lead to new quantum technology and to a better understanding of quantum particles in general.
Domain walls form when groups of atoms at very low temperatures segregate into different clumps, or "domains." Between those domains forms a "wall" that behaves so differently from the atoms themselves that scientists consider it an independent quantum object.
Scientists have witnessed domain walls before, but this is the first time that a team has developed a reliable way to create and study them. The researchers simulated a Bose-Einstein condensate, a state of matter where the constituent particles are cooled to the point that they condense into a single quantum object. By tweaking certain conditions, the team was able to make atoms in the condensate separate into high- and low-density domains with a domain wall in between them. That wall acted like a completely separate object. For example, pushing the atoms in one direction led the wall to move in the opposite direction.
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