Researchers at TU Wien have developed a one-dimensional “quantum wire” using a gas of ultracold atoms. In this system, both mass and energy can move freely without friction or energy loss.
In everyday physics, transport refers to the movement of something from one place to another. This can include electricity traveling through a wire, heat spreading through a metal, or water flowing inside a pipe. In each case, the behavior of the flow depends on how freely charge, energy, or mass can move through a material.
Under normal conditions, interactions such as collisions and friction create resistance, which gradually weakens these flows or brings them to a stop. Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology have now demonstrated an unusual exception to this familiar behavior.
In their experiment, thousands of rubidium atoms were restricted to move only along a single line by carefully controlled magnetic and optical fields. This setup produced an ultracold quantum gas in which both energy and mass can move without any loss at all. The findings, reported in the journal Science, show that the flow stays constant even after an enormous number of collisions between atoms. This surprising stability points to a form of transport that behaves very differently from what is seen in ordinary materials.
Two Kinds of Transport
“In principle, there are two very different types of transport phenomena,” says Frederik Møller from the Atominstitut at TU Wien. “We speak of ballistic transport when particles move freely and cover twice the distance in twice the time—like a bullet traveling in a straight line.”
There is also diffusive transport, which arises from many random collisions. Heat conduction is one such diffusive process: when some hot particles meet cooler ones, they gradually share energy and momentum until, on average, all have the same temperature. “This kind of transport is not linear,” says Møller. “To cover twice the distance, you typically need four times as long.”
In the TU Wien experiment, the atoms behaved very differently. “By studying the atomic current, we could see that diffusion is practically completely suppressed,” says Møller. “The gas behaves like a perfect conductor; even though countless collisions occur between the atoms, quantities like mass and energy flow freely, without dissipating into the system.”
Like a Newton’s Cradle
This unusual behavior can be understood through an analogy to a Newton’s cradle, the familiar desk toy with a row of swinging metal balls. When one ball is pulled back and released, it transfers its momentum straight through the others to the ball on the opposite end, which swings out as if untouched.
“The atoms in our system can only collide along a single direction,” explains Møller. “Their momenta are not scattered but simply exchanged between collision partners. Each atom’s momentum remains conserved—it can only be passed on, never lost.”
Just like in the Newton’s cradle, motion in the atomic wire continues without damping. Momentum and energy can travel across the gas indefinitely rather than dissipating as in normal matter.
“These results show why such an atomic cloud does not thermalize—why it doesn’t distribute its energy according to the usual laws of thermodynamics,” says Møller. “Studying transport under such perfectly controlled conditions could open new ways to understand how resistance emerges, or disappears, at the quantum level.”
Reference: “Characterizing transport in a quantum gas by measuring Drude weights” by Philipp Schüttelkopf, Mohammadamin Tajik, Nataliia Bazhan, Federica Cataldini, Si-Cong Ji, Jörg Schmiedmayer and Frederik Møller, 27 November 2025, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.ads8327
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4 Comments
This Quantum Gas Refuses To Follow the Rules of Classical Physics。
VERY GOOD!
Please ask researchers to think deeply:
Why do NOT Quantum Gas follow the rules of Classical Physics? What is the theoretical basis?
In the physical world constructed by the American Physical Society and its publications, two sets of counter rotating cobalt-60 are two mirror images of each other, topological vortices and their twin antivorties are two completely different vortices (Extended Reading https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/1924133848171648046), CP is violated, parity is not conserved, etc. These are all truths. Topological Vortex Theory (TVT) advances the Double-Slit interference experiment from direct observation to Cross-Dimensional extension (https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/1987416883826274584) is not suitable for any APS publication.
Do APS and its publications respect science? Are these publications and their society (American Physical Society) honest? Are the public fools in the eyes of these so-called Physical Society and their publications?
When we pursue the ultimate truth of all things, the space in which our bodies and all things exist may itself be the final and deepest puzzle we need to explore. This is not only the pursuit of physics, but also the most magnificent exploration of the origin of the universe by human reason.
Based on the Topological Vortex Theory (TVT), space is an uniformly incompressible physical entity. Space-time vortices are the products of topological phase transitions of the tipping points in space, are the point defects in spacetime. Point defects do not only impact the thermodynamic properties, but are also central to kinetic processes. They create all things and shape the world through spin and self-organization.
In today’s physics, some so-called peer-reviewed journals—including Physical Review Letters, Nature, Science, and others—stubbornly insist on and promote the following:
1. Even though θ and τ particles exhibit differences in experiments, physics can claim they are the same particle. This is science.
2. Even though topological vortices and antivortices have identical structures and opposite rotational directions, physics can define their structures and directions as entirely different. This is science.
3. Even though two sets of cobalt-60 rotate in opposite directions and experiments reveal asymmetry, physics can still define them as mirror images of each other. This is science.
4. Even though vortex structures are ubiquitous—from cosmic accretion disks to particle spins—physics must insist that vortex structures do not exist and require verification. Only the particles that like God, Demonic, or Angelic are the most fundamental structures of the universe. This is science.
5. Even though everything occupies space and maintains its existence in time, physics must still debate and insist on whether space exists and whether time is a figment of the human mind. This is science.
6. Even though space, with its non-stick, incompressible, and isotropic characteristics, provides a solid foundation for the development of physics, physics must still insist that the ideal fluid properties of space do not exist. This is science.
and go on.
Is this the counterintuitive science they widely promote? Compromising with pseudo academic publications and peer review by pseudo scholars is an insult to science and public intelligence. Some so-called scholars no longer understand what shame is. The study of Topological Vortex Theory (TVT) reminds us that the most profound problems in physics often lie at the intersection of different theories. By exploring these border regions, we can not only resolve contradictions in existing theories but also discover new physical phenomena and application possibilities.
Under the topological vortex architecture, it is highly challenging for even two hydrogen atoms or two quarks to be perfectly symmetrical, let alone counter-rotating two sets of cobalt-60. Contemporary physics and so-called peer-reviewed publications (including Physical Review Letters, Science, Nature, etc.) stubbornly believe that two sets of counter rotating cobalt-60 are two mirror images of each other, constructing a more shocking pseudoscientific theoretical framework in the history of science than the “geocentric model”. This pseudo scientific framework and system have seriously hindered scientific progress and social development.
For nearly a century, physics has been manipulated by this pseudo scientific theoretical system and the interest groups behind it, wasting a lot of manpower, funds, and time. A large amount of pseudo scientific research has been conducted, and countless pseudo scientific papers have been published, causing serious negative impacts on scientific and social progress, as well as humanistic development.
Complexity does not necessarily mean that there is no logical and architectural framework to follow. Mathematics is the language and tool that reveals the motion of spacetime, rather than the motion itself. Although the physical form of spacetime vortices is extremely simple, their interaction patterns are highly complex, and we must develop more and richer mathematical languages to describe and understand them.
The development of the Topological Vortex Theory (TVT) reflects a progression from concrete physical phenomena to abstract mathematical modeling and, ultimately, to interdisciplinary unification. Its core innovation lies in forging the continuous spacetime geometry of general relativity with the discrete interactions of quantum field theory within the same topological dynamical system. The core idea of TVT — space is physical, and matter is its topological excitation—already provides a solid and elegant scientific path for understanding the origin of all things.
——Excerpted from https://scitechdaily.com/microscope-spacecrafts-most-precise-test-of-key-component-of-the-theory-of-general-relativity/#comment-909171 and https://t.pineal.cn/blogs/6255/A-Mathematical-and-Physical-Analysis-On-the-Origin-of-Objects.
Momentum and energy can travel across the Gas indefinitely rather than dissipating as in normal matter.
VERY GOOD!
Please ask researchers to think deeply:
Does the Gas need space?