![\"Figure](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/e129_1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nN. R. Cooper\/University of Cambridge; adapted by APS<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
N. R. Cooper\/University of Cambridge; adapted by APS<\/p>\n
\u00d7<\/a><\/p>\n By imaging individual atoms in ultracold atomic gases, so-called quantum gas microscopes (QGMs) have become indispensable for exploring quantum many-body physics. But although they can reveal an atom\u2019s position, they typically cannot also reveal its momentum. Now a team led by Nigel Cooper at the University of Cambridge in the UK has devised an approach that lets QGMs simultaneously observe both an atom\u2019s position and its momentum, albeit with some shared blur [1<\/a>]. These snapshots could uncover features invisible to position-only QGMs, such as energy flow, local temperature, and the swirling motion of quantum fluids.<\/p>\n According to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, both the position and momentum of a quantum particle cannot be known with unlimited precision. In 1965, theorists showed that this principle does not prevent a single experiment from obtaining approximate measurements of both quantities at once. Cooper and his colleagues have demonstrated how to turn that six-decade-old concept into a novel capability for QGMs. In their newly proposed method, light pulses and magnetic fields convert information about an atom\u2019s momentum into a form that QGMs can capture alongside the atom\u2019s position.<\/p>\n The researchers distinguish between two operational modes. In the first, an atom\u2019s position and momentum are jointly measured and share a loss in precision caused by the uncertainty principle. In the second, the QGM still measures an atom\u2019s position, but it also extracts some statistical measure related to the atom\u2019s momentum\u2014characterizing its mean velocity or its mean energy, for example\u2014without the precision trade-off. \u201cOur technique can be directly implemented in state-of-the-art QGM setups,\u201d Cooper says. \u201cIt offers a new lens through which to view nonequilibrium dynamics and correlated quantum phases.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2013Ryan Wilkinson<\/p>\n Ryan Wilkinson is a Corresponding Editor for\u00a0Physics Magazine<\/a> based in Durham, UK.<\/p>\n ReferencesN. R. Cooper et al., \u201cPhase-space microscopes for quantum gases: Imaging conjugate variables and momentum-weighted densities,\u201d Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 173402 (2026)<\/a>.Subject AreasCondensed Matter Physics<\/a>Quantum Physics<\/a>Related Articles Flat bands harbor exotic electron physics. A new way of realizing them could make the physics more accessible. Read More \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Condensed Matter PhysicsTuning Flat Bands<\/a>October 20, 2026<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a> More Articles<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"October 21, 2026• Physics 19, s129 A new method lets quantum gas microscopes measure not only where atoms…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[61,60,248,82],"class_list":["post-663439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-physics","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-physics","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}