����

Strontium is an incredible element at the center of quantum physics tools and studies—most famously optical atomic clocks. While strontium atoms have one very long-lived excited state (which lives more than 100 seconds), they also have nicely accessible excited states. Those excited states are easier to access, but they are short-lived. A new proposal from the Rey Theory Group suggests a way to reach a dark state where the atoms can live in this excited state forever, opening new opportunities for clock technologies.

Understanding how three atoms interact when they are close together is really tricky. For the past decade scientists agreed that there was a universal “sweet spot”, a range called the van der Waals universality. In that range, three atoms were close enough that their interactions could be explained with simpler two-body formulas. But the Cornell Group at JILA is testing the limits of van der Waals universality, which could help form a better predictive model for other atom species.

For the first time, JILA scientists are able to observe dynamical phase transitions in an out-of-equilibrium system. They also found that they could undo the dynamical changes, reversing the experiment to where it started, which has great implications for understanding how the quantum world behaves and acts as a model for superconductors.

Using a new silicon cavity, JILA’s Ye Group has built a laser with improved coherence to reduce the noise in two optical atomic clocks and achieve record high stability. Improving atomic clocks’ stability is crucial to evaluating the clock accuracy and using these tools for scientific experiments in physics and other disciplines.

While we've known for a while that black holes could rip stars apart, we don’t know why these events occur so frequently. Now, a model by JILA researchers explaining this discrepancy is shown to be promising after passing its first reality test.

Researchers at JILA have developed a fast, simple method to prepare samples that enhances DNA imaging. The results are so clear that the double-helix shape of DNA can be seen clearly.

The holy grail of modern quantum science is to make a stable quantum computer. Now an experiment is on its way to create a quantum computer that is stable and can last longer using the sophisticated clock at JILA.

JILA researchers have proposed a simple experiment to realize and study rapid scrambling, the process by which quantum information spreads throughout a complex system and becomes inaccessible to simple local measurements, thus becoming apparently lost. Understanding rapid scrambling, as well as how it connects to chaos and entanglement, is key not only for building quantum computers but also for explaining open question about our universe such as the behavior of black holes and quantum gravity.

Trapping single atoms is a bit like herding cats, which makes researchers at the ��ñ���� expert feline wranglers. In a new study, a team led by physicist Cindy Regal showed that it could load groups of individual atoms into large grids with an efficiency unmatched by existing methods.

By using ultrafast lasers to measure the temperature of electrons, JILA researchers have discovered a never-before-seen state in an otherwise standard semiconductor. This research is the most recent demonstration of a new technique, called ultrafast electron calorimetry, which uses light to manipulate well-known materials in new ways.