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Nature 424, 24-25 (3 July 2003) | doi:10.1038/424024a

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Condensed-matter physics: Really cool molecules

Paul S. Julienne

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Ultracold molecules have been made by applying a changing magnetic field to a quantum gas of 'fermionic' atoms. This raises the prospect of creating novel superfluids and molecular Bose–Einstein condensates.

At the quantum level, any particle can also be considered to be a wave, its momentum corresponding to a wavelength. In ultracold atomic gases, at temperatures much lower than a millionth of a degree above absolute zero, the wavelength of the atoms becomes larger than the mean distance between them, giving rise to some remarkable quantum mechanical properties that are at the forefront of contemporary physics research1.