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Ultra-cold lithium atoms shedding light on superfluid formation

A recent study resolves a long-standing debate about what happens at the microscopic level when matter transitions into a superconducting or superfluid state. Correlations between pairs of atoms in an ultra-cold gas were found to grow suddenly as the system was cooled below the superfluid transition temperature.

JILA team finds new parallel between cold gases and 'hot' superconductors

JILA team finds similar behavior in ultracold atomic gases and high-temperature superconductors, supporting the idea that studying superfluidity in atomic gases can help understand complicated superconductors. The discovery lends support to the concept of a 'pseudo-gap region' where atom pairing occurs above critical temperature.