Description

At temperatures a billionth of a degree above absolute zero, matter can transform and behave collectively, like a school of fish. By tracking the motions of atoms, we can observe the onset of highly correlated phases of matter that don’t appear in our day-to-day lives.

This ring visualizes the momentum distribution of many atoms simulated in the ultracold. When an atom’s intrinsic spin is coupled to its motion, a highly correlated spin-microemulsion phase can emerge and is signaled by this circular distribution.