New results show that such a plasma can form spontaneously from a cloud of cold, excited atoms.
But within the last year, atomic physicists have begun creating and studying plasmas at temperatures approaching absolute zero. Now a team of researchers reports in the 20 November PRL that ultracold atoms with electrons in highly excited states can spontaneously evolve into ultracold plasmas. These plasmas may serve as simple systems to help researchers better understand the plasmas found in white dwarf stars and the interiors of massive planets. Thomas Gallagher of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and his colleagues have been studying how cold, highly excited atoms behave in electric fields. They're enormous atoms.