Photon Enlightenment by Wayne Cosby, Pacific Northwest Laboratory Photons are ubiquitously exploited in modern technology.
Physicists can easily express the interaction between photons and matter in a mathematical equation.
For a given case, however, the solution of this equation is usually so complex that simplifying assumptions and approximations must be made. A team of scientists from Argonne National Laboratory has recently made an important contribution in exploring the range of validity of one of the most commonly used approximations. This ionizes the atom, giving it a positive charge. The investigation of this process plays a key role in the understanding of atomic structure. In particular, the geometrical pattern with which the electrons are ejected contains important information about the dynamics of the process.