> Zhao and his colleagues focused on atoms of the element rubidium, which they cooled to only 19 millionths of a degree kelvin above absolute zero by hitting them with lasers and electromagnetic fields. They used the same tools – lasers and electromagnetic fields – to arrange up to 19 such atoms into a chain.

That's really the state-of-the-art.

I wonder how (and if) this relates to the [third law of thermodynanics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_law_of_thermodynamics). At zero temperature, only one microstate would exist with minimum energy, no? This would imply an entropy of exactly zero.

south_korea_ln

[Non paywalled](https://archive.md/uvqdC)

science

When their quantum properties are precisely controlled, some ultracold atoms can resist the laws of physics that suggest everything tends towards disorder