Scientists have discovered a new technique to study the behavior of superfluids. They have used lasers to study the liquids, which are not just strange and frictionless, but also difficult to create and study!
With this technique, the scientists can simulate liquid experiments, conducting which, with superfluids, are either difficult or impossible.
Particles in superfluids behave oddly — moving together at random - which has been observed using light waves passing through certain materials - called nonlinear crystals.
As a substitute, or model, for superfluids in experiments, the team depended on laser light. The findings will be reported in the January 2007 issue of Nature Physics.
The leader of the research team, Jason Fleischer, a Princeton assistant professor of electrical engineering said,
Once you realize you can use light to model a superfluid, a new world opens up. An entire field of physics is interested in studying the dynamics of superfluids, but the experiments are difficult to do. It’s a lot easier to conduct the experiments with lasers.
