During an average day of knocking electrons loose from their host atoms with high-energy lasers, a team of European physicists uncovered the shortest time interval ever measured in nature. At about 20 attoseconds, the interval is indeed very short. That’s 20 billionths of one billionth of one second. Blink and you’ve missed it many, many times over again.
During photoemission – the expulsion of electrons from an atom by bombarding them with high-energy light – it’s always been assumed that there is no delay between the photons’ impact and the breaking loose of the target electron. But a group of German researchers in collaboration with Greek, Austrian, and Saudi Arabian colleagues decided to challenge that assumption with extremely sensitive time measurement tech.
The team bombarded atoms of neon gas with near-infrared laser light in 10-15 second pulses and ultraviolet pulses of far shorter durations of just 180 attoseconds (remember, an attosecond is one billionth of one billionth of one second). The near-IR light served as an attosecond chronograph, measuring the time of UV impact and the time the electrons exited their orbits.Their findings turned up two interesting results. For one, they found that electron ejection is not a “time zero” action as once presumed, but that excited electrons hesitate very, very briefly before leaving the atom. But perhaps more interesting, they found that electrons from different orbitals behaved differently, leaving the atom at slightly different times even though they were impacted simultaneously.
The researchers are not exactly sure why this is, but it likely has to do with some small, overlooked influence that electrons exert over one another that is different that the forces exerted on electrons by their nuclei. If that’s the case, the tiny time lag could have big consequences for physics, a discipline ruled by the interactions between atoms and the behavior of electrons. Until they figure all that out, they can at least take pride in their 20-attosecond record for the shortest time interval ever directly measured.
Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.


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thats fast but not unexpected.
So, a skeptic would wonder if the multiple impacts were in fact simultaneous. Then to link, and emit instantaneously? I think it's just like the starting point of this experiment; it's just too small a unit of time to measure as of yet. As for the different orbitals; makes me wonder if there is a typical electron build sequence by atom type, or possibly by the atom's environment. If so, that could give you your Higg's Bosun type effect, right? Just without another particle. Assembly or disassembly would just be a matter of finding the starting or ending point, induce it in an electron poor or rich environment.
So, a skeptic would wonder if the multiple impacts were in fact simultaneous. Then to link, and emit instantaneously? I think it's just like the starting point of this experiment; it's just too small a unit of time to measure as of yet. As for the different orbitals; makes me wonder if there is a typical electron build sequence by atom type, or possibly by the atom's environment. If so, that could give you your Higg's Bosun type effect, right? Just without another particle. Assembly or disassembly would just be a matter of finding the starting or ending point, induce it in an electron poor or rich environment.
sorry bout the double, it wouldn't post, but it made up for the hassle, posting twice, for my trouble.
At that time scale, could the speed of light be part of the issue? If the size of an atom is very roughly about 10E-10 meters, in 20 attaseconds light would travel about 3E-10 meters, if my math is correct.
So...how does one measure this timespan? The description in the article is woefully insufficient here.
Also, at these speeds, wouldn't the act of turning the switch on and off be a lot like if you were measuring the 100 meter dash with a stopwatch whose buttons tool 20 minutes to push?
Maybe I just need a primer on small-interval time measurement.
From reading the original paper in Science (link at the bottom of the linked Science Daily article), I think the key to measuring a time interval that small is the electric field of the IR laser. A photon of light has oscillating electric and magnetic fields, and those fields can "push" charged particles like electrons.
20 attoseconds (2*10^-14 sec)is shorter than the period of the infrared wave (~10^-13 sec), so the electron will be deflected in different directions by the infrared beam's electric field depending on when it leaves the atom. So if at time 0, when the UV photons strike the atom, the IR electric field is pointed vertically upward, the electron will be deflected straight down when it leaves the atom (since the electron has a negative charge). But if the electron does not leave the atom for 20 attoseconds, then the IR beam's electric field will be pointing in a different direction (let's say downwards), so the electron will be deflected in the opposite direction. After it is deflected, the electron should fly off in a straight line until it runs into a detector, so you can see the attosecond differences as different impact locations on the detector.
This is all analogous to the fast-rotating mirrors used in really high-speed photography, except they use an infrared laser's wave instead of a mirror.
The Electron... E-Space
Space is broken up into geometrical patterns formed by the intersection of particles. These pieces of space contain their own individual and unique pressure, which exists within a spectrum.
Every particle which exists in “natural space,” the space that existed before the creation of the universe (altered space) and, which exists as infinite space outside of the universe, exists within a multitude of spectrums, are limited in mass and density.
In other words, particles can only be so small and so large and pressures can only be so great and so little. First, let’s examine the most massive particle that exists in space, the “macro particle” and all of its working parts. Like everything that exists in both natural and altered space, everything must adhere to the law of physics. Nothing can become too heavy nor can it become too large; if you put one too many bricks, the structure will collapse. The same principle applies to particles in space. In the case of space, its fluidity conforms to a natural configuration, just like water. Space is a sea of particles one linked to the other. These particles are pushed in all directions into one another as far as the pressure that opposes them will allow. “A macro particle” is a particle that exists in atomic space and so would be as small as what contemporary science calls an atom and can be as big as one half the size of the universe (altered space). These two massive particles that engulf the universe would be separated at the periphery and the center by a “quantum degree.” Quantum degree (qd) represents the smallest point in space, a space within a space. These qd’s form quantum structures that crisscross through space within which electrons flow. A “Quantum Structure” is a conduit within, which is contained pressure that is so intense, that it
cannot become any greater “at the periphery” of the center. However, the pressure at the “center” of this structure is much less than the pressure at the periphery as one particle has been pushed through the center of another providing a space of “relative ambiance” at the very center. This space or Electron space (E. space) is broken up in the same way that natural space and altered space are broken up into particles that conform to the law of physics in relative pressure…electrons! This configuration of space at the greatest relative pressure provides the frequency signals that make matter what it is. The electrons flowing through these conduits in signature configurations are a computer program that makes this universe or altered space work. Matter is the final product of these signature configurations of electrons that vector up from the E. space. Matter is a chain reaction that begins with the Electron.
The electron conforms to the pressure that surrounds it on eight sides. Quantum conduits are octagonal at the center surrounded by four less octagonal larger particles at the periphery. Space is octagonal becoming less pronounced and more geometrically round as it vectors up to the limits of altered space until…one quantum degree at the periphery of the largest two macro particles is obtained.
Motion is a product of a natural imbalance that exists in space, an imbalance that takes us from the largest to the smallest. All structures in space reflect this imbalance. This imbalance causes particles within larger particles to be less dense at the periphery and most dense at the center. All particles are being pushed toward the center of a larger particle becoming denser as they move into the particle and eventually are pushed out of the center by larger more massive particles. This natural motion of particles from the periphery to center constitutes “particle orbit”.
Particle orbit amongst other things precludes the possibility of a big bang theory. All particles orbit in space! The heavier more massive particles at the periphery, push the particles of the greatest density toward the center… becoming smaller and denser themselves as they too move toward the center and then are pushed out of the center by bigger more massive particles and then back up again,” particle orbit”. Particle orbit is how space maintains homeostasis, a natural order. Space cannot be both static and fluid at the same time. The big bang theory could never have occurred because the particles at the center would never have come under the pressure necessary to form the universe in this way. Those particles would have simply been pushed from the center. When something in space becomes denser something else becomes less dense.
The electron can be defined as a quantum or even a sub quantum particle. It is the densest and smallest particle in the universe. Matter is defined as groups of electrons configured in signature patterns at the smallest level, vectoring up to atomic space in quantum structures.…!
These quantum structures contain the frequency signature for matter. Once contemporary science understands how to overcome the relative pressure of these structures and when we are able to expand or re- configure these electron clusters or signature frequencies (frequency transfer), science will have opened the door to quantum frequency transmission. This is the key to “other dimensional science”. Understanding electron space and the electron… is the key to opening these doors.
The words “other dimensional science” are misleading. I prefer to define space in terms of pressure or frequency spectrums and dimensional particles in terms of “particle signature density.” The door to other frequency spectrums does not unlock by” putting particles under extreme pressure in magnetic fields” but by putting pressure into quantum conduits and starting a chain reaction from the inside! The secret is… how do you produce that much relative pressure… relative pressure that is great enough to penetrate a quantum structure and enter E. space?