Research Highlights

Spinning Out Stars & Planets

Scientists believe that planetary systems coalesce from disks of gas and dust orbiting a star. Similarly, stars can form within massive accretion disks orbiting a black hole. Determining the mechanisms that create stars and planets from these orbiting disks is a hot topic among astrophysicists, according to JILA Fellow Phil Armitage and colleagues W. K. M. Rice of the University of California, Riverside, and G. Lodato of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy. Read more »

Smudging Genetic Blueprints

High-energy radiation is notorious for damaging DNA, primarily by breaking chemical bonds. Damage to DNA can cause mutations, cancer, or even death. Much of this damage is inflicted by secondary, or low-energy, electrons knocked out of atoms in the DNA molecules by radiation. The low-energy electrons get captured by the DNA bases (which make up the letters of the genetic code), temporarily forming a negatively charged molecule (anion). The anion lasts just long enough to transfer its excess energy to the weakest nearby chemical bond, often breaking it. Read more »

Designer Rings

One way to understand unstable molecules is to systematically create slightly different versions of a similar stable molecule and investigate each new molecule with identical analysis and experiments. That is exactly what researchers from JILA and CU are doing with a series of ringed molecules. The JILA researchers are Graduate Student Adam Gianola, Postdoctoral Research Associate Takatoshi Ichino, and Fellow Carl Lineberger. Their CU collaborators are Lecturer Rebecca Hoenigman, Senior Research Associate Shuji Kato, and Professor Veronica Bierbaum. Read more »

Timely Comparisons

When Albert Einstein said, "the only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once," he didn't know about studies performed by Senior Research Associate Christine Hackman and Fellow Judah Levine. These time-and-frequency experts work quite hard to devise ways of comparing the accuracy and stability of the world's premier atomic clocks - so that things like satellite communications and high-tech navigation can happen precisely when they're supposed to, including all at once. Read more »

Atoms in Collision

"Watch" atoms collide! Thrill to the twists and turns of potassium atom wave functions as the atoms come closer and closer to impact! "See" the atoms deform, then recover as they smash together and fly apart inside a dense atomic vapor! It's all in a day's work for Graduate Student Virginia (Gina) Lorenz and Fellow Steve Cundiff. Read more »

Flashdance!

Imagine trying to describe the intricate motions of a single atom as it interacts with a laser. Then suppose you could generalize this understanding to a whole cloud of similar atoms and predict the temperatures your experimental physicist colleagues could achieve with laser cooling. This way-cool theoretical analysis comes compliments of Graduate Student Josh Dunn and Fellow Chris Greene. Read more »

Splash!

Brad Perkins and his thesis advisor Fellow David Nesbitt recently decided to explore what happens when fast, cold carbon dioxide molecules collide with the surface of an oily liquid (perfluoropolyether). Of course, you can only do these sorts of things in a vacuum chamber, where there are virtually no other gas molecules in the air to get in the way! The vacuum chamber itself creates an additional challenge: working with liquids at very low pressures. Read more »

Surfing the Cosmic Shock Wave

Illustration of Dynamics of Supernova 1987A Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss

For nearly 18 years, JILA Fellow Dick McCray has been studying the brightest supernova to light up Earth's night skies since the Renaissance. Read more »

The Quest for Stability

Fellow Jan Hall has been working on stabilizing the frequency of lasers since the 1960s. Now, he, JILA Research Associate Mark Notcutt, Long-Sheng Ma (currently at BIPM in France), and Fellow Jun Ye have devised an improved, compact, and less expensive method for stabilizing lasers. The new method is based on a small, vertically mounted optical cavity (shown on the right). Because the cavity is supported exactly in the middle, the top and bottom halves change in length by equal and opposite amounts in response to vibrations. Read more »

Measure the Force, Luke

Graduate students Dave Harber and John Obrecht, postdoc Jeff McGuirk, and Fellow Eric Cornell recently devised a clever way to use a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) inside a magnetic trap to probe the quantum behavior of free space. To do this, the researchers first created a BEC inside a magnetic trap, whose shape (where the condensate forms) resembles a cereal bowl. Then as shown in the diagram to the right, they moved the BEC in the bowl closer and closer to a glass surface until distortions in the shape of the bowl appeared. Read more »