How Atoms Themselves Create a Mosaic That Never Repeats ⚡ экспресс
Original: "Emergent aperiodicity in Bose-Bose mixtures induced by spin-dependent periodic potentials"
When cooled nearly to absolute zero, atoms can arrange into a pattern that never repeats — like an infinite mosaic of antique tiles.
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A tiny cloud of atoms, trapped in a twisted web of light, self-assembles into a non-periodic mosaic with eightfold symmetry. Remarkably, no special 'non-repeating' lattice is needed — just a mixture of two atom types in equal proportion and a nudge to their interaction. Such quantum quasicrystals could become a platform for ultra-precise measurements and simulating exotic phases.
🎯 Eightfold symmetry is forbidden for ordinary crystals, so quasicrystals, first produced in 1982, became a scientific sensation. Later such structures were found in meteorites, showing that nature can create the impossible.