High School Practical use of Bose-Einstein condensate?

[Bishop85]

I'm not a physicist nor an academic, however, the world around me fascinates me. I was watching YouTube and came across an explanation of Bose Einstein condensate, and thought with less space between atoms that would potentially be a better target for creating new elements. So my question is barring money and other red tape because that's a different beast, is the idea sound enough in theory to use BEC as a target for new element production?

 

[DrClaude]

No, that will never happen. To create new elements, you need to bring the nuclei together, and that takes a huge amount of energy. Also, BEC is achieved in very dilute gases, because the natural state of matter at the low temperatures that are needed is solid, so you have to reduce the probabilities of three-body collisions that would lead to the gas simply becoming solid.

Some confusion might come from the fact that in a BEC, the atoms occupy the same state, so they can be thought of as all being one on top of the other. While this picture is not completely incorrect, the potential between two atoms is unchanged from what it is in other conditions, such that the probability that two nuclei of different atoms in the condensate are at the same place is practically 0.

 

[f95toli]

Note, however, that there ARE -at least potentially- practical applications forBEC; most of these are related to e.g. inertial navigation using atom interferometry and gravitational sensing.
There are already working prototypes but whether this is actually commercially viable is still a bit of a open question (you might want to have one instrument on each nuclear sub, but that is not a very big market).

 

[Bishop85]

No, that will never happen. To create new elements, you need to bring the nuclei together, and that takes a huge amount of energy. Also, BEC is achieved in very dilute gases, because the natural state of matter at the low temperatures that are needed is solid, so you have to reduce the probabilities of three-body collisions that would lead to the gas simply becoming solid.

Some confusion might come from the fact that in a BEC, the atoms occupy the same state, so they can be thought of as all being one on top of the other. While this picture is not completely incorrect, the potential between two atoms is unchanged from what it is in other conditions, such that the probability that two nuclei of different atoms in the condensate are at the same place is practically 0.

the video I watch was using sodium to create the BEC heated to 700 f and then cooled with lasers. here is the video . it was my understanding that the elements in BEC once formed resembles particles in a neutron star, flattened and squeezed together thus removing "wiggle room" for on coming atoms from a collider to miss. I did wonder about the energy difference between the in coming atoms at high energy and the stationary atoms of low energy and how that would effect subsequent trials. thanks you for putting up with my ramblings lol.

 

[Bishop85]

Note, however, that there ARE -at least potentially- practical applications forBEC; most of these are related to e.g. inertial navigation using atom interferometry and gravitational sensing.
There are already working prototypes but whether this is actually commercially viable is still a bit of a open question (you might want to have one instrument on each nuclear sub, but that is not a very big market).

gravitational sensing, like what they detected the neutron star collision with? I love this stuff called science lol. maybe with the development of new meta materials like graphine ( so interesting look it up if your not familiar) we will be able to cheapen the cost of said endeavors

 

[ZapperZ]

gravitational sensing, like what they detected the neutron star collision with? I love this stuff called science lol. maybe with the development of new meta materials like graphine ( so interesting look it up if your not familiar) we will be able to cheapen the cost of said endeavors

I like your enthusiasm, but you need to make sure you don't end up in a word salad.

"Graphine" (sic) is NOT a metamaterial. It is a REAL material. A metamaterial is a material that is made up of small units of conductors of rods, split rings, etc... Graphene is, to put is naively, a sheet of carbon atoms.

How BE condensate somehow morphed into using graphene and metamaterials, that's beyond my comprehension.

Zz.

 

[Bishop85]

I like your enthusiasm, but you need to make sure you don't end up in a word salad.

"Graphine" (sic) is NOT a metamaterial. It is a REAL material. A metamaterial is a material that is made up of small units of conductors of rods, split rings, etc... Graphene is, to put is naively, a sheet of carbon atoms.

How BE condensate somehow morphed into using graphene and metamaterials, that's beyond my comprehension.

Zz.

The connection isn't clear and I'm sorry your right, I also did misspell graphyne, I was trying to say that with relatively new discoveries once we learn to mass produce them the cost of hard ware used in these complex experiments would go down. I said metamaterial because I don't think of carbon being a very good conductor which is why it was used in some of the first light bulbs. I have an issue with making my self understood, its bad lol.

 

[mfb]

it was my understanding that the elements in BEC once formed resembles particles in a neutron star, flattened and squeezed together thus removing "wiggle room" for on coming atoms from a collider to miss.

No.

I said metamaterial because I don't think of carbon being a very good conductor which is why it was used in some of the first light bulbs.

Don't make up words please, especially if you are not sure these words are not used elsewhere already. It will just lead to misunderstandings.

gravitational sensing, like what they detected the neutron star collision with? I love this stuff called science lol. maybe with the development of new meta materials like graphine ( so interesting look it up if your not familiar) we will be able to cheapen the cost of said endeavors

It doesn't help to randomly propose "maybe X will help with Y" without any specific proposal how.