Many-body chemical reactions in a quantum degenerate gas

Many-body chemical reactions in a quantum degenerate gas | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Many-body chemical reactions in a quantum degenerate gas Zhendong Zhang, Shu Nagata, Kai-Xuan Yao, Cheng Chin This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2330871/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 24 Jul, 2023 Read the published version in Nature Physics → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Chemical reactions in the quantum degenerate regime are described by mixing of matterwave fields. Quantum coherence and bosonic enhancement are two unique features of many-body reactions involving bosonic reactants and products. Such collective reactions of chemicals, dubbed “super-chemistry”, is an elusive goal in quantum chemistry research. Here we report the observation of coherent and collective reactive coupling between Bose condensed atoms and molecules near a Feshbach resonance. Starting from an atomic condensate, the reaction begins with a rapid formation of molecules, followed by oscillations of their populations in the equilibration process. Faster oscillations are observed in samples with higher densities, indicating bosonic enhancement. We present a quantum field model which describes the dynamics well and identifies three body recombination as the dominant reaction process. Our findings exemplify the highly sought-after quantum many-body chemistry and offer a new paradigm for the control of quantum chemical reactions. Physical sciences/Physics/Atomic and molecular physics/Ultracold gases Physical sciences/Physics/Quantum physics/Quantum mechanics Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 24 Jul, 2023 Read the published version in Nature Physics → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-2330871","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":158584577,"identity":"7606cf70-2f06-44b6-802b-78158c761a6a","order_by":0,"name":"Zhendong Zhang","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7221-1729","institution":"University of Chicago","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Zhendong","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhang","suffix":""},{"id":158584578,"identity":"5cbd908a-4b5f-4c1a-8afa-c5e36ee7676e","order_by":1,"name":"Shu Nagata","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Chicago","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Shu","middleName":"","lastName":"Nagata","suffix":""},{"id":158584579,"identity":"def6837c-44d1-43a6-8873-66abf1900aaa","order_by":2,"name":"Kai-Xuan Yao","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4071-7060","institution":"University of Chicago","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Kai-Xuan","middleName":"","lastName":"Yao","suffix":""},{"id":158584580,"identity":"cef8f018-c301-4baa-87b7-f6aee964e09d","order_by":3,"name":"Cheng Chin","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAyUlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYFACHoYDDBUMDAbMMIEDRGk5Q6oWBsY2oBa4ACEt/O1nDx4unHdY3pyd+eHHLxUMcnw3EvBrkTiTl3B45rbDhjub2YylZc4wGEsS0mIgwWNwmHfb4QSDwzwM0pJtDIkbiNMyB6yF+TdQSz2RWhrAWtgkP7YxJBgQ9ksOUPGxdMMNh9nMrBnOSBjOPPMAvxb+9jPGn3lqrOUNzh9+fPNHhY0833ECtqAAZh4GCRKUgwDjDxI1jIJRMApGwcgAAGkDQ0cLd1CsAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0278-4630","institution":"The James Franck Institute, Enrico Fermi Institute and Department of Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Cheng","middleName":"","lastName":"Chin","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2022-11-30 18:31:14","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-2330871/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2330871/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-023-02139-8","type":"published","date":"2023-07-24T04:00:00+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":40515596,"identity":"380ce017-bca5-46d0-b862-f9ff092cd297","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2023-07-25 07:06:19","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":3539183,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"CoherentMoleculeFormationNaturePhysicsSubmission.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-2330871/v1_covered_0082ffc7-5373-4458-8f6b-d5bcdd856ee2.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"Many-body chemical reactions in a quantum degenerate gas","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-portfolio","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Nature Portfolio","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":false,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-2330871/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2330871/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Chemical reactions in the quantum degenerate regime are described by mixing of matterwave fields. Quantum coherence and bosonic enhancement are two unique features of many-body reactions involving bosonic reactants and products. Such collective reactions of chemicals, dubbed “super-chemistry”, is an elusive goal in quantum chemistry research. Here we report the observation of coherent and collective reactive coupling between Bose condensed atoms and molecules near a Feshbach resonance. Starting from an atomic condensate, the reaction begins with a rapid formation of molecules, followed by oscillations of their populations in the equilibration process. Faster oscillations are observed in samples with higher densities, indicating bosonic enhancement. We present a quantum field model which describes the dynamics well and identifies three body recombination as the dominant reaction process. Our findings exemplify the highly sought-after quantum many-body chemistry and offer a new paradigm for the control of quantum chemical reactions.","manuscriptTitle":"Many-body chemical reactions in a quantum degenerate gas","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2022-12-09 04:29:40","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-2330871/v1","editorialEvents":[],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-physics","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"nphys","sideBox":"Learn more about [Nature Physics](http://www.nature.com/nphys/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Nature Physics","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"Nature Research","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"11dced4d-79e0-400c-8a41-721aede4d972","owner":[],"postedDate":"December 9th, 2022","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"published-in-journal","subjectAreas":[{"id":17568373,"name":"Physical sciences/Physics/Atomic and molecular physics/Ultracold gases"},{"id":17568374,"name":"Physical sciences/Physics/Quantum physics/Quantum mechanics"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2023-07-25T07:06:05+00:00","versionOfRecord":{"articleIdentity":"rs-2330871","link":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-023-02139-8","journal":{"identity":"nature-physics","isVorOnly":false,"title":"Nature Physics"},"publishedOn":"2023-07-24 04:00:00","publishedOnDateReadable":"July 24th, 2023"},"versionCreatedAt":"2022-12-09 04:29:40","video":"","vorDoi":"10.1038/s41567-023-02139-8","vorDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-023-02139-8","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-2330871","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-2330871","identity":"rs-2330871","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"_2-kVJe1T_tPrBINL-cwx","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}