They transformed the light into “supersolid”! For scientists it was that is called a “wow effect”, but if you are not physical it is not so intuitive to understand what it means. In short, it is not that they actually frozen the light, like having an ice abat-jour, but on a quantum level yes, and we know that on a quantum level everything is very complicated. Even a photon has no mass, it is both wave and particle, it is already difficult to imagine it, let alone “frozen” and “supersolid”.
The research, published in Nature, was carried out by the Nanotec laboratory, at the CNR of Lecce. A “supersolid” on a quantum level is a state of matter that combines the structural rigidity typical of solids with that of flowing without friction of the superfluids. It is as if (I say “as if”, because it is always very difficult to explain it and even understand it for those who are not an expert) the photons had been “trapped” in a very dense and cold solid (to create superfluids or supersolids it is necessary to approach temperatures close to absolute zero), and they behaved like a quantum supersolid (a structured semi -dductor), with zero viscosity, “as they were”. giving rise to hybrid particles that are called polaritoni.
If you did not understand anything, don’t worry, let’s say they made the light solid, but what is it for? A discovery that in the future can be fundamental to develop new technologies
quantums, and also to better study quantum phenomena in more accessible conditions. In short, more efficient quantum computers, for example, or photonic devices. Who have nothing to do with the photonic rays of Mazinga Z.