Physicists including Doerte Blume of Washington State University have found the long sought Efimov quantum state in a molecule of three helium atoms. Two atoms that typically repel each other become strongly attracted when a third atom is involved. Their work is in the journal Science.
“The Efimov state is not an exotic special case, but rather an example of a universal quantum effect that plays an essential role in many areas of physics,” said Maksim Kunitski, a researcher at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, where the discovery was made. Examples of these areas are cold atoms, clusters, nuclear physics and, recently, solid-state physics. There are also first reports about its significance in biology.