JILA's faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral research associates explore some of today's most challenging and fundamental scientific questions.

Members of the Institute's AMO Physics Center use lasers and optical systems to study ultracold and ultrasmall worlds, where atoms, molecules, and devices obey the laws of quantum mechanics. The Institute's theoretical astrophysicists team up with observational astronomers to discern the structure and evolution of planets, stars, black holes, and galaxies as well as the origin and evolution of the universe itself. Year after year, professional collaborations among JILA researchers result in exceptional scientific progress, both in theory and experiment.

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  In the Beginning

  Before there were galaxies with black holes in their centers, there were vast reservoirs of dark matter coupled to ordinary matter, mostly hydrogen gas. These reservoirs were sprinkled...   Read More »

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  First Light

  The merger of supermassive black holes is a hot topic in astrophysics. Such mergers may occur after the formation of black hole binaries during galaxy collisions. The mergers are predicted to emit gravitational waves...  Read More »

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  Nanomeasurement is a Matter of the Utmost Precision

  Former research associate John Teufel and Fellow Konrad Lehnert decided to build a nifty system that could measure more diminutive forces of half an attoNewton (0.5 x 10^-18 N)...   Read More »

  
  
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  Stretched Thin

  Fellow Ralph Jimenez is applying his knowledge of lasers, microscopy, and the precise control of tiny amounts of fluids to the development of a battery-powered blood analyzer for use "off-grid" in Third World countries. He is collaborating with Jeff Squier, David Marr, and their students from...   Read More »
   

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  Ballistic Evidence

  Heat does not always flow as rapidly near nanostructures as it typically does in solids. Instead, it can go ballistic! Ballistic heat transfer occurs near a tiny device if its size is smaller than the distance a phonon, or lattice vibration...   Read More »

  
  
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  Radical Changes

  Carl Lineberger and his group recently achieved some exciting firsts: (1) the experimental observation of the oxyallyl diradical, a key intermediate in a series of important chemical reactions and (2) the posting of an abstract of the Angewandte Chemie cover story reporting this achievement — on Facebook...   Read More »
   

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  The Great Migration

  Fellow Phil Armitage studies the migration of gas giant planets through evolving protoplanetary disks. He and former JILA postdoc Richard Alexander (Universiteit Leiden) have designed relatively simple models that reproduce the observed frequency and distribution of extra-solar giant planets...   Read More »

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  The Coldest Horse in the Race

  The race to measure the electron’s electric dipole moment (eEDM) is picking up speed across the world, thanks to graduate student Ed Meyer of JILA’s Lazy Bohn’s Ranch (i.e., John Bohn’s theory group). Meyer has identified more than a dozen horses, a.k.a. molecules and molecular ions...   Read More »