Flatland physics probes mysteries of superfluidity
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 - 12:42
in Physics & Chemistry
(Physorg.com) -- If physicists lived in Flatland -the fictional two-dimensional world invented by Edwin Abbott in his 1884 novel -some of their quantum physics experiments would turn out differently (not just thinner) than those in our world. The distinction has taken another step from speculative fiction to real-world puzzle with a paper* from the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) reporting on a Flatland arrangement of ultracold gas atoms. The new results, which don`t quite jibe with earlier Flatland experiments in Paris, might help clarify a strange property: `superfluidity.`