Physicists froze a 'necklace' of atoms — and witnessed a quantum phenomenon predicted 100 years ago

"Necklaces" of ultracold atoms have provided new evidence to support a nearly 100-year-old quantum theory.

In 1931, physicists were trying to use quantum mechanics to explain why some materials are magnetic.

Then, a young physicist named Hans Bethe looked at a single row of electrons.

Each electron's spin can point up or down.

Bethe worked out the math for how such a row behaves and found that if a few spins in the row flip, they can stick together and travel down the row as a single unit.

Decades later, physicists found that Bethe's method also works for larger particles moving along a line , such as atoms.

If those particles attract each other, the math predicts they will bind into clusters called Bethe strings.

Now, physicists have found evidence of these clusters in a line of ultracold atoms.

The findings were published Aug.

29 in the journal Nature Communications .

The discovery may not create new gadgets, but it addresses a fundamental mystery in physics.

Everything around us, from magnets to phone chips, consists of countless interacting particles.

This makes their behavior difficult to predict.

Ultracold atoms serve as a clear and adjustable way to study these complex systems.