Super Radioactive Atoms are cooling could produce a laser -shaped neutrinos beam, according to a duo of MIT and the University of Texas in Arlington. For example, the authors calculated that such a neutrinos laser could be made by trapping 1 million atoms of rubidium-83. Normally, radioactive atoms have a half-life of around 82 days, which means that half of the atoms break down, eliminating an equivalent number of neutrinos, every 82 days. They show that by cooling the rubidium-83 to a coherent quantum state, the atoms should undergo a radioactive decrease in a few minutes.
BJP Jones & Ja Formgio design an idea for a laser that draws a neutrinos beam. Image credit: Gemini AI.
“In our concept for a neutrino laser, neutrinos would be expressed at a much faster rate than they would normally do, much like a laser emits photons very quickly,” Dr. Ben Jones, researcher at the University of Texas in Arlington, told Arlington.
“This is a new way to accelerate radioactive decrease and neutrinos’ production, which, to my knowledge, has never been done,” added MIT professor Joseph Formaggio.
Several years ago, Professor Formaggio and Dr. Jones considered a new possibility separately: what happens if a natural neutrino production process could be improved thanks to quantum coherence?
The initial explorations revealed fundamental roadblocks by realizing this.
Years later, while discussing the properties of Ultracold Tritium, they asked: could neutrinos production be improved if radioactive atoms such as tritium could be returned so cold that they could be brought to a quantum state known as Bose-Einstein?
They also wondered, if radioactive atoms could be transformed into a Bose-Einstein condensate, would that improve the production of neutrinos in one way or another? By trying to determine the quantum mechanical calculations, they initially found that no effect of this type was likely.
“It turned out to be a red herring – we cannot accelerate the process of radioactive disintegration and neutrino production, simply by making a Bose -Einstein condensate,” said Professor Foraggio.
Several years later, Dr. Jones revisited the idea, with an additional ingredient: superradiance – a quantum optical phenomenon that occurs when a collection of electroluminescent atoms is stimulated to behave in synchronization.
In this coherent phase, it is expected that the atoms should issue an explosion of photons which is superradial, or more radiant than when the atoms are normally out of synchronized.
Physicists have proposed that a similar superradial effect may be possible in a Bose-Einstein radioactive condensate, which could then lead to a similar explosion of neutrinos.
They went to the drawing board to develop the quantum mechanical equations governing how the emitting atoms of light transform from a coherent initial state in a superradiant state.
They used the same equations to determine the radioactive atoms in a coherent condensate state of Bose-Einstein.
“The result is: you get a lot more photons faster, and when you apply the same rules to something that gives you neutrinos, this will give you more neutrinos,” said Professor Formaggio.
“It was at this point that the pieces clicked together, this superradiance in a radioactive condensate could allow this accelerated neutrinos emission in the shape of a laser.”
To test their concept in theory, the researchers calculated how neutrinos would be produced from a cloud of 1 million atoms of rubidium-83 on co-refuse.
They found that, in the coherent state of the condensate of Bose-Einstein, the atoms were broken down radioactively at a rate of acceleration, releasing a beam of neutrinos in the shape of a laser in a few minutes.
Now that they have shown in theory that a neutrino laser is possible, they plan to test the idea with a small table configuration.
“It should be enough to take this radioactive material, spray it, trap it with lasers, cool it, then transform it into condensate bose-einstein,” said Dr. said Jones.
“Then it should start to do this superradiance spontaneously.”
The pair recognizes that such an experience will require a certain number of precautions and careful manipulation.
“If it turns out that we can show it in the laboratory, then people can think: can we use it as a neutrino detector? Or as a new form of communication? This is when the pleasure really begins,” said Professor Foraggio.
The team’s article was published today in the newspaper Physical examination letters.
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BJP Jones & JA FORMAGGIO. 2025. Neutrino superradiant lasers from radioactive condensates. Phys. Rev. Lett 135, 111801; Doi: 10.1103 / L3C1-YG2L
