Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have observed the Hall effect in a Bose-Einstein condensate for the first time. The Hall effect is a phenomenon where a magnetic field applied perpendicular to an electric current causes a measurable voltage perpendicular to both the current and the magnetic field.
The NIST team used a gas of ultracold atoms to simulate the Hall effect. By manipulating the atoms with lasers, they created conditions where the atoms behaved like charged particles. They then observed the atoms moving at right angles to both the direction of the “current” flow and the artificial magnetic field, demonstrating the Hall effect in a quantum system.
This discovery could help scientists better understand quantum phenomena such as superfluidity and the quantum Hall effect. The ability to observe the Hall effect in a Bose-Einstein condensate provides a new tool for studying these fundamental properties of quantum matter.
Source: https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2012/06/first-observation-hall-effect-bose-einstein-condensate
Keywords: superfluidity, Hall effect, ultracold atoms, Bose-Einstein condensate
