Scientists in Ohio and France have explained some strange atomic behavior, and made a discovery that could ultimately make MRI images sharper. This graphic depicts the quantum mechanical principal of super-adiabaticity, which was responsible for the behavior of atoms in some nuclear magnetic resonance experiments. If the trajectory of the atoms during an experiment were mapped on a globe, then the purpose of an adiabatic experiment is to move the atoms being studied from one point on the globe to another, slowly, and following a very carefully designed path (gray line). With super-adiabaticity, the atoms follow a different, sometimes, wildly different path (orange line), but still end up at the right destination.
Credit: Philip Grandinetti, Ohio State University.
Source, Departments Of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Ohio State University.
