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天宫空间站冷原子物理柜（CAPR）团队在《科学》报告：光偶极阱里的铷原子凝聚体可冷到约 9.7 皮开尔文，并实现约七秒自由膨胀。阅读时可留意 atom、gravity、optical、trap、expansion、orbit、magnetic、experiment 等词，并区分新闻综述数字与同行评议论文摘要中的表述。

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Physicists aboard China’s Tiangong space station have cooled a cloud of rubidium atoms to about 9.7 picokelvins—less than ten-trillionths of a degree above absolute zero. The result, reported in the journal Science on 5 November 2026, comes from the Cold Atom Physics Rack, an automated module also called CAPR. Outside experts say the record low temperature and a long free-fall window could help tests of gravity and quantum simulation in orbit.

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中国天宫空间站上的物理学家，已将一团铷原子冷却到约 9.7 皮开尔文——比绝对零度只高不到十万亿分之一度。这一结果于 2026 年 11 月 5 日发表在《科学》杂志上，来自名为冷原子物理柜（CAPR）的自动化实验模块。外部专家认为，这一创纪录低温与较长的自由落体窗口，有助于在轨检验引力并开展量子模拟。

Atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensate behave like one shared quantum wave. On Earth, gravity presses trapped atoms against the fields that hold them, which warms the gas. NASA’s Cold Atom Laboratory on the International Space Station earlier reached about 52 picokelvins with magnetic atom chips. CAPR uses a different approach: two nested optical dipole traps formed by crossing laser beams that attract polarized atoms.

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玻色–爱因斯坦凝聚中的原子，会像共享同一个量子波那样运动。在地球上，重力会把被困原子压向托住它们的场，从而使气体升温。美国宇航局设在国际空间站上的冷原子实验室，早先用磁原子芯片做到了约 52 皮开尔文。CAPR 采用不同方法：两套嵌套的光偶极阱，由交叉激光束极化并吸引原子而形成。

According to Science news coverage and the paper, the team first held about two million rubidium atoms in a tight inner trap, then lowered laser power so energetic atoms escaped. The remaining cloud cooled to about three nanokelvins. Allowing the atoms to expand into a wider outer trap further cut their interaction energy. Chief scientist Xuzong Chen of Peking University says the atom number stayed the same while interaction energy fell; the atoms then moved at less than about 200 micrometers per second. The peer-reviewed report describes a condensate of roughly twenty thousand atoms below ten picokelvins, with free expansion lasting seven seconds.

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据《科学》新闻报道与论文，研究团队先将约两百万个铷原子固定在较紧的内阱中，再降低激光功率，让能量较高的原子逃逸。剩余云团冷却到约三纳开尔文。随后让原子扩展到更宽的外阱，进一步削弱它们之间的相互作用能。北京大学首席科学家陈徐宗表示，原子数保持不变，变化的是相互作用能；原子随后的运动速度低于约每秒 200 微米。同行评议论文描述的是约两万个原子组成的凝聚体，等效温度低于十皮开尔文，自由膨胀可持续七秒。

That long expansion time may matter as much as the temperature. Holger Mueller of the University of California, Berkeley, notes that ground labs might someday match the cold, but they will not keep the cloud in free fall for seven seconds. Such quiet conditions suit interference experiments that ask whether gravity pulls equally on different atoms, as Einstein’s general relativity assumes. Optical traps can also hold atoms in more than one internal state at once, which magnetic traps often cannot, says Hélène Perrin of Sorbonne Paris Nord University.

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这段较长的膨胀时间，其意义可能不亚于温度本身。加州大学伯克利分校的 Holger Mueller 指出，地面实验室或许有朝一日也能达到同样的低温，但很难让云团在自由落体中保持七秒。如此安静的条件，适合做干涉实验，检验引力是否如爱因斯坦广义相对论所假定的那样，对不同原子施加相同拉力。巴黎北索邦大学的 Hélène Perrin 说，光阱还能同时囚禁处于多种内部态的原子，而这往往是磁阱做不到的。

CAPR researchers plan optical lattices next, trapping condensate atoms in arrays of laser spots that mimic electrons in a crystal—useful for quantum simulation of complex materials. Outside physicist Ernst Rasel, whose team held the previous cold record, congratulated the Chinese group and said they are working at the frontier. CAPR physicist Weibiao Chen adds that the rack is open to international collaborators. The Science paper is titled Quantum gases below 10 picokelvin in space (DOI 10.1126/science.aea5324).

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CAPR 研究者接下来计划做光晶格，把凝聚体原子困在一排激光点阵中，用以模拟晶体中的电子——这对复杂材料的量子模拟很有用。此前保持低温纪录的外部物理学家 Ernst Rasel 祝贺中国团队，并称他们正站在前沿。CAPR 物理学家陈卫标补充说，该机柜对国际合作者开放。《科学》论文题为《太空中低于 10 皮开尔文的量子气体》（DOI 10.1126/science.aea5324）。

新闻来源

• Science · Quantum gases below 10 picokelvin in space (DOI 10.1126/science.aea5324)
• Science | AAAS News · China space experiment creates coldest temperature ever (5 Nov 2026)

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