🔬 Category

physics.atom-ph

429 papers

The subatomic world is a realm where matter behaves in ways that defy our everyday intuition, and this category explores the fundamental building blocks of our universe. From the intricate dance of quarks inside a proton to the strange properties of electrons, these studies reveal the deep rules that govern everything from the smallest particles to the largest stars.

At Gist.Science, we track every new preprint in this field as it appears on arXiv, ensuring you stay ahead of the curve. For each discovery, we provide both a clear, plain-language explanation of the core ideas and a detailed technical summary for those who want to dive deeper into the mathematics and methodology.

Below are the latest papers in Atom-Ph, offering fresh insights into the structure and behavior of the atomic scale.

Interaction of twisted light with free twisted atoms

This paper investigates the interaction between structured light and free atoms modeled as wave packets, demonstrating that vortex photons can efficiently transfer orbital angular momentum to atomic centers of mass, induce recoil effects like the "superkick" and "selfkick," and enable dipole-dominated electronic transitions that violate standard selection rules, all of which are experimentally accessible using cold atomic beams and Penning traps.

I. Pavlov, A. Chaikovskaia, D. Karlovets2026-04-07🔬 physics.atom-ph

Elucidating Au-C Bonding via Laser Spectroscopy of Gold Monocarbide

This paper reports the first experimental observation and laser spectroscopic characterization of gas-phase gold monocarbide (AuC), providing detailed insights into its electronic structure, bond dissociation energy, and radiative properties to serve as benchmarks for relativistic theory and applications in quantum science.

Rory M. Weldon, Danielle M. Darling, Nicole M. Albright, Kendall L. Rice, Phaedra L. Salerno, K. Cooper Stuntz, Benjamin L. Augenbraun2026-04-07🔬 physics.atom-ph

Continuous thermochemical sources of AlF molecules

This paper presents a compact, continuous AlF molecular beam source based on a thermochemical reaction between sublimated aluminum trifluoride and aluminum metal, demonstrating high brightness, successful cryogenic buffer gas cooling to 30 K, and the potential for direct loading into a molecular magneto-optical trap.

Pulkit Kukreja, Priyansh Agarwal, Maximilian Doppelbauer, Jionghao Cai, Xiangyue Liu, Eduardo Padilla, Sebastian Kray, Henrik Haak, Russell Thomas, Stefan Truppe, Boris G. Sartakov, Gerard Meijer, Sid (…)2026-04-07🔬 physics.atom-ph

Determination of the ground state polarizability of 162^{162}Dy near 530 nm

This paper experimentally determines the ground-state scalar and vector polarizabilities of 162^{162}Dy near 530 nm by exploiting strong spin-dependent light shifts, providing results that agree with theoretical calculations and offering essential data for optimizing single-atom trapping in optical tweezer arrays.

Alexandre Journeaux, Maxime Lecomte, Julie Veschambre, Maxence Lepers, Jean Dalibard, Raphael Lopes2026-04-06🔬 physics.atom-ph

Multiband dispersion and warped vortices of strongly-interacting photons

This paper presents a theoretical study demonstrating that strongly interacting Rydberg polaritons exhibit a warped multiband dispersion with degenerate Dirac points and rotational symmetry, challenging the conventional single-band parabolic approximation and advancing the understanding of multi-photon quantum correlations.

Bankim Chandra Das, Dmytro Kiselov, Lee Drori, Ariel Nakav, Alexander Poddubny, Ofer Firstenberg2026-04-03🔬 physics.atom-ph

Probing topological edge states in a molecular synthetic dimension

This paper demonstrates the use of ultracold RbCs molecules to encode a 1D synthetic lattice in their rotational states, successfully realizing the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model with long coherence times and full site-resolved readout to probe and verify the stability of topological edge states against various perturbations.

Adarsh P. Raghuram, Francesca M. Blondell, Jonathan M. Mortlock, Benjamin P. Maddox, Sohail Dasgupta, Holly A. J. Middleton-Spencer, Kaden R. A. Hazzard, Hannah M. Price, Philip D. Gregory, Simon L. C (…)2026-04-02🔬 physics.atom-ph

Mitigating noise of residual electric fields for single Rydberg atoms with electron photodesorption

This paper demonstrates that electron photodesorption induced by ultraviolet light effectively mitigates residual electric field noise caused by surface-bound electrons in compact quartz vacuum cells, thereby enabling coherent single-photon Rydberg excitation of trapped atoms and enhancing the performance of quantum technologies.

Bahtiyar Mamat, Cheng Sheng, Xiaodong He, Jiayi Hou, Peng Xu, Kunpeng Wang, Jun Zhuang, Mingrui Wei, Min Liu, Jin Wang, Mingsheng Zhan2026-04-01⚛️ quant-ph