By manipulating quantum properties in atoms, scientist at MIT were able to prevent a sample of Litium atoms (6Li) from scattering light, therefore, turning it invisible! In other words, the capacity of the atoms to scatter light, was suppressed ...
This effect was predicted theoretically 30 years ago, and it is an example of a phenomenon called Pauli blocking, based on the Pauli exclusion principle, where electrons in atoms are forbidden to occupy the same quantum state. In standard conditions, electrons in an atom are arranged and localized in such a way that they are all distinguishable from each other; they cannot superpose. This is a property of fermionic particles; they all have different quantum states (identified by quantum numbers) and so they are distinguishable.
By Inés Urdaneta, Physicist and research scientist at RSF
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