A Bose-Einstein condensate is produced for the first time in space

An international team of researchers has for the first time produced a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in space. In their article published in the newspaper Nature, the group describes the creation of a small experimental apparatus that was carried into space by a rocket and the experiments that were conducted during its free fall.

A Bose-Einstein condensate is a state of matter that occurs when the very low density gas atoms are cooled to a very close absolute zero and agglomerate to form an extremely dense quantum state. Scientists are interested in their production in order to test their properties – the theory has suggested that they could serve as a basis for very sensitive sensors. Such super-sensitive sensors could be used to better understand physical phenomena such as gravitational waves. However, the production of Bose-Einstein condensates is tricky because gravity disrupts the devices for producing and studying them. The current method is to remove such devices from towers to allow them to work in a zero-gravity environment, but these experiments only require fractions of a second. Doing these experiments in the space would be a much better option because of the microgravity environment.

Recognizing the potential of a space platform to conduct research on the CLB, the United States launched the Cold Atom Laboratory last May, although it is not yet fully operational. In the meantime, with this new effort, researchers have created a tiny device capable of producing a BEC and conducting a multitude of experiments, which they embarked on a rocket and launched into space.

The device consisted of a capsule containing a chip containing a group of rubidium-87 atoms, electronics, lasers and a power source. It was activated when the rocket reached an altitude of 243 km, producing a BEC in just 1.6 seconds. Once the BEC produced, 110 pre-programmed experiments were made within six minutes of the return of the rocket to Earth.

The team-produced BEC is the first ever produced in space and marks the beginning of a new era in the BEC's research efforts.

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More information:
Dennis Becker et al. Condensation of Bose – Einstein in the space for precision interferometry, Nature (2018). DOI: 10.1038 / s41586-018-0605-1