Scientists observed unique ergodicity-breaking behaviors in the C60 molecule's rotations without breaking symmetry using advanced infrared spectroscopy. This discovery offers new insights into quantum system dynamics and promises further molecular investigations. Researchers led by JILA and NIST
The researchers studied a C60 molecule, also called a buckyball, to understand how it could break ergodicity. Credit: Steven Burrows/Jun Ye and David Nesbitt
In many cases, ergodicity breaking is tied to what physicists call “symmetry breaking.” For instance, the internal magnetic moments of atoms in a magnet all point in one direction, either “up” or “down.” Despite possessing the same energy, these two distinct configurations are separated by an energy barrier.
“Just like the sound of an instrument can tell you about its physical properties, molecular resonant frequencies, encoded in its infrared spectrum, can tell us about the structure and rotation dynamics of the molecule,” said Liu. Rather than physically rotating the molecule faster and faster, the researchers probed a gas-phase sample of many C60 molecules in which some rotated rapidly and some slowly. The resulting infrared spectrum contained snapshots of the molecule at various rotation speeds.
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