At first, the atoms rapidly progressed toward thermal equilibrium, then switched to a slower advance, Lev and colleagues report in a paper published May 2 in Physical Review X.

Quantum dynamics—the study of how particles behave and interact in a quantum system—has long fascinated physicists due to its puzzling and sometimes bizarre behaviors. Unlike classical systems, where ...

These collisions generate supra-thermal ions during the deposition of alpha particles, causing deviations from the equilibrium state and falling outside the scope of hydrodynamic descriptions.