Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Quantum gas free-falls its way to a low-temperature record

A cloud of rubidium atoms is said to have achieved the coldest temperature yet after being dropped from the top of a tower.
Computer simulation of vortices forming within a spinning Bose–Einstein condensate

Scientists have manipulated the strange form of matter called a Bose–Einstein condensate (computer simulation) to reach the coldest temperature achieved so far. Credit: National Institute of Standards and Technology/Science Photo Library

Physicists have achieved what they describe as the lowest temperature yet — 0.038 billionths of a degree above absolute zero — by cajoling a quantum gas to slow its expansion1.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 597, 306 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02437-2

References

  1. Deppner, C. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 100401 (2021).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links