🔬 Category

physics.atom-ph

725 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.

🔬 atomic physics

Artificial versus Natural Atoms: The uncanny capability of the many-body Schrödinger equation to produce emergent behavior

This paper reviews the theoretical and experimental progress over the last 25 years in understanding artificial atoms and molecules as finite quantum analogs of Wigner crystals, demonstrating how the many-body Schrödinger equation explains their emergent behaviors—such as spectral quenching and rovibrational spectra—to advance both fundamental physics and quantum information technologies.

Constantine Yannouleas2026-09-30
🔬 atomic physics

All-optical switching in a trapped ion cavity QED system: a comparative study

This paper numerically investigates and compares the transient dynamics and performance trade-offs of three distinct cavity-EIT-based all-optical switching schemes in a trapped ion system, revealing that while a four-level N-type system offers faster response via signal suppression, a three-level scheme achieves near-unity contrast with shorter pulses, thereby establishing guidelines for optimizing high-speed optical gating and quantum communication applications.

Abhijit Kundu, Vijay Bhatt, Arijit Sharma2026-09-30
🔬 atomic physics

Measuring the spin of a spin-1/2 and getting a result of 7

This paper reports the first experimental realization of the original 1988 proposal by Albert, Aharonov, and Vaidman, demonstrating that a Bose-Einstein condensate of 87Rb atoms can yield an anomalous weak value of 7 for a spin-1/2 measurement, effectively amplifying a tiny magnetic momentum kick by a factor of 14 through unlikely postselection.

Joseph McGowan IV, Nicholas Mantella, Noah Baker, Aephraim M. Steinberg2026-09-30
🔬 atomic physics

Surface-Induced Spectral Broadening during Efficient Two-Photon Excitation of Cold 133Cs^{133}\text{Cs} Atoms near an Optical Nanofiber

This paper reports the observation of efficient, low-power two-photon excitation of cold 133Cs^{133}\text{Cs} atoms near an optical nanofiber, characterized by a distinct red-shifted spectral broadening caused by surface-induced van der Waals interactions and waveguide-modified radiative dynamics.

Yuan Jiang, Xiaodong Qi, Nicolás Vera Paz, Yilin Chen, Tanbin Wu, Dianqiang Su, Pablo Solano, Yanting Zhao2026-09-30
🔬 atomic physics

Precision measurement of the 176Lu+^{176}\mathrm{Lu}^+ 3D1^3D_1 microwave clock transitions

This paper reports the precision measurement of unperturbed 176Lu+^{176}\mathrm{Lu}^+ 3D1^3D_1 microwave clock transition frequencies with a fractional uncertainty of 4×10−144\times10^{-14}, enabling the direct inference of the residual quadrupole moment and facilitating routine evaluation of quadrupole shifts for optical frequency standards at the 10−2010^{-20} level.

M. D. K. Lee, Qi Zhao, Qin Qichen, Zhao Zhang, N. Jayjong, K. J. Arnold, M. D. Barrett2026-09-29
🔬 atomic physics

Systematic errors from scalar slowing-down models in transient SERF magnetometry

This paper demonstrates that the standard scalar slowing-down model in SERF magnetometry introduces significant magnetic-field estimation biases during transient dynamics due to its inability to account for polarization-dependent anisotropy, and proposes a refined effective Bloch equation with separate longitudinal and transverse slowing-down factors to achieve higher quantitative accuracy while maintaining model simplicity.

M. Kopciuch, H. Raghavan, M. W. Mitchell2026-09-29
🔬 atomic physics

Observation of a topological edge state among localized bulk states in the anisotropic quantum Rabi model

Using a trapped-ion quantum simulator, researchers identified a topological edge state within the anisotropic quantum Rabi model by distinguishing it from localized bulk states through unique signatures of chirality, spin-boson separability, and a highly squeezed vacuum state, thereby establishing eigenstate-level characterization as a method for probing topological phenomena in systems lacking translational symmetry.

Sungjoo Lim, Chanyang Im, Christopher G. Yale, Brian K. McFarland, Edward C. Tortorici, Daniel S. Lobser, Melissa C. Rev (…)2026-09-29
🔬 atomic physics

Interactions and dynamics of metastable triplet-state helium dimer with Ne and Ar

This paper presents the first theoretical investigation of the intermolecular interactions and collision dynamics of metastable triplet-state helium dimers with neon and argon, utilizing high-level quantum chemical calculations to construct potential energy surfaces and analyze low-energy scattering resonances that provide benchmarks for future experimental studies.

Dibyendu Sardar, François Lique2026-09-29