MIT scientists have imaged heat traveling as a wave, called "second sound," in superfluid quantum gas. This discovery could unlock mysteries of neutron stars and superconductors.
Usually, when something gets warmed up, heat tends to spread outward before eventually dissipating. But things are a little different in the world of superfluid quantum gas. For the first time, MIT scientists have successfully imaged how heat actually travels in a wave, known as a "second sound," through this exotic fluid. Understanding this dynamic could help answer questions about high-temperature superconductors and neutron stars. In the world of average, everyday materials, heat tends to spread out from a localized source. Drop a burning coal into a pot of water, and that liquid will slowly rise in temperature before its heat eventually dissipates. But the world is full of rare, exotic materials that don't exactly play by these thermal rules. Instead of spreading out as one would expect, these superfluid quantum gasses "slosh" heat side to side—it essentially propagates as a wave. Scientists call this behavior a material's "second sound" (the first being ordinary sound via a density wave). Although this phenomenon has been observed before, it's never been imaged. But recently, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were finally able to capture this movement of pure heat by developing a new method of thermography (a.k.a.…