Research Highlights

  • Planetesimal orbits around a white dwarf. Initially, every planetesimal has a circular, prograde orbit. The kick forms an eccentric debris disk which with prograde (blue) and retrograde orbits (orange).
    Dead stars known as white dwarfs, have a mass like the Sun while being similar in size to Earth. They are common in our galaxy, as 97% of stars are white dwarfs. As stars reach the end of their lives, their cores collapse into the dense ball of a white dwarf, making our galaxy seem like an ethereal graveyard.

    Despite their prevalence, the chemical makeup of these stellar remnants has been a conundrum for astronomers for years. The presence of heavy metal elements鈥攍ike silicon, magnesium, and calcium鈥攐n the surface of many of these compact objects is a perplexing discovery that defies our expectations of stellar behavior.
  • Atoms inside of an optical cavity exchange their momentum states by "playing catch" with photons. As the atoms absorb photons from an applied laser, the whole cloud of atoms recoil rather than the individual atoms.
    In a new paper published in Science, JILA and NIST Fellows Ana Maria Rey and James Thompson, JILA Fellow Murray Holland, and their teams proposed a way to overcome atomic recoil by demonstrating a new type of atomic interaction called momentum-exchange interaction, where atoms exchanged their momentums by exchanging corresponding photons.
  • Coulomb crystals are surrounded by molecules used in the Lewandowski laboratory to study astrochemical reactions
    While it may not look like it, the interstellar space between stars is far from empty. Atoms, ions, molecules, and more reside in this ethereal environment known as the Interstellar Medium (ISM). The ISM has fascinated scientists for decades, as at least 200 unique molecules form in its cold, low-pressure environment. It鈥檚 a subject that ties together the fields of chemistry, physics, and astronomy, as scientists from each field work to determine what types of chemical reactions happen there.

    Now, in the recently published cover article of the Journal of Physical Chemistry A, JILA Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder Physics Professor Heather Lewandowski and former JILA graduate student Olivia Krohn highlight their work to mimic ISM conditions by using Coulomb crystals, a cold pseudo-crystalline structure, to watch ions and neutral molecules interact with each other.
  • Multilevel atoms on a superradiance potential "rollercoaster" inside an optical cavity. The system can be tuned to generate squeezing in a dark state where it will be immune to superradiance.
    Ana Maria Rey and her team discovered a method for how to not only create dark states in a cavity, but more importantly, make these states spin squeezed. Their findings could open remarkable opportunities for generating entangled clocks, which could push the frontier of quantum metrology in a fascinating way.
  • The transition in star formation rates and black hole growth as redshift decreases from regimes where positive feedback dominates to a later epoch when feedback is largely negative.
    Astronomers have long sought to understand the early universe, and thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a critical piece of the puzzle has emerged. The telescope's infrared detecting 鈥渆yes鈥 have spotted an array of small, red dots, identified as some of the earliest galaxies formed in the universe.

    This surprising discovery is not just a visual marvel, it's a clue that could unlock the secrets of how galaxies and their enigmatic black holes began their cosmic journey.
  • Diagram of the experimental setup (not to scale): Photoactivation of a single molecule of bR.
    When it comes to drug development, membrane proteins play a crucial role, with about 50% of drugs targeting these molecules. Understanding the function of these membrane proteins, which connect to the membranes of cells, is important for designing the next line of powerful drugs. To do this, scientists study model proteins, such as bacteriorhodopsin (bR), which, when triggered by light, pump protons across the membrane of cells.
  • Atomic dipoles on a lattice interact to produce an observable spatially varying frequency shift (shown as blue to red).
    In a new study published in Science today, JILA and NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Fellow聽and University of Colorado Boulder physics professor Jun Ye and his research team have taken a significant step in understanding the intricate and collective light-atom interactions within atomic clocks, the most precise clocks in the universe.
  • Researchers observed the dynamic phases of BCS superconductor interactions in a Cavity QED by measuring the light leakage from the cavity.
    As a thermodynamic phase of matter, superconductors typically exist in an equilibrium state. But recently, researchers at JILA became interested in kicking these materials into excited states and exploring the ensuing dynamics. As reported in a new Nature paper, the theory and experiment teams of JILA and NIST Fellows Ana Maria Rey and James K. Thompson, in collaboration with Prof. Robert Lewis-Swan at the University of Oklahoma, simulated superconductivity under such excited conditions using an atom-cavity system.
  • A schematic of a laser going through an AOM, which sends sound waves into a silicon cavity.
    In a new Optica paper, Ye鈥檚 team, working with JILA electronic staff member Ivan Ryger and John "Jan" Hall, describe implementing a new approach for the PDH method, reducing RAM to never-before-seen minimal levels while simultaneously making the system more robust and simpler.
  • A photo of the atomic clock setup complete with the bisecting cavity.
    NIST Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder Physics professor Jun Ye, in collaboration with JILA and NIST Fellow James K. Thompson, has used a specific process known as spin squeezing to generate quantum entanglement, resulting in an enhancement in clock performance operating at the 10-17stability level. Their novel experimental setup, published in Nature Physics, also allowed the researchers to directly compare two independent spin-squeezed ensembles to understand this level of precision in time measurement, a level never before reached with a spin-squeezed optical lattice clock.
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