The world’s first atomic bomb test created a form of matter scientists once believed could not exist, according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on May 17, 2021.
According to the PNAS paper by Luca Bindi and colleagues on May 17, 2021, scientists discovered an icosahedral quasicrystal with the formula Si₆₁Cu₃₀Ca₇Fe₂ in a sample of red trinitite from the Trinity nuclear test. The Trinity test occurred on July 16, 1945, at 5:29:45 AM Mountain War Time at the Alamogordo Bombing Range in New Mexico, as reported by Los Alamos National Laboratory on May 17, 2021.
The plutonium implosion device nicknamed “Gadget” produced a yield equivalent to 21 kilotons of TNT, according to Los Alamos National Laboratory on May 17, 2021. Smithsonian Magazine reported on May 17, 2021, that the resulting fireball reached 100 million degrees, which is 10,000 times hotter than the surface of the sun.
According to the PNAS paper on May 17, 2021, the quasicrystal measures approximately 10 micrometers across and displays icosahedral symmetry with 5-fold rotational symmetry. Scientific American reported on May 18, 2021, that quasicrystals are materials with long-range order but no three-dimensional translational periodicity, a structure that violates the rules of classical crystallography.
“Quasicrystals are formed in extreme environments that rarely exist on Earth,” Los Alamos National Laboratory quoted geophysicist Terry C. Wallace as saying on May 17, 2021. “They require a traumatic event with extreme shock, temperature, and pressure. We don’t typically see that, except in something as dramatic as a nuclear explosion.”
According to the PNAS paper on May 17, 2021, the research team included Luca Bindi from the University of Florence, Paul J. Steinhardt from Princeton University, Terry C. Wallace from Los Alamos National Laboratory, and co-authors William Kolb, G. Nelson Eby from the University of Massachusetts, and Paul D. Asimow from Caltech.
The discovery resulted from analyzing red trinitite, which Los Alamos National Laboratory stated on May 17, 2021, formed when desert sand fused with copper from transmission lines during the nuclear blast. Scientific American quoted Paul Steinhardt on May 18, 2021, as saying: “Over the course of ten months, we were slicing and dicing, looking at all sorts of minerals. Finally, we found a tiny grain.”
Scientific American reported on May 18, 2021, that Israeli scientist Dan Shechtman first discovered quasicrystals in 1984, earning him the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Before this discovery, scientists believed crystals could only have specific rotational symmetries that allowed their atomic patterns to repeat in three dimensions.
According to Scientific American on May 18, 2021, natural quasicrystals had previously been found only in the Khatyrka meteorite from Russia, formed under extreme conditions during asteroid collisions. The PNAS paper noted on May 17, 2021, that the Trinity quasicrystal represents the oldest known human-made quasicrystal with a precisely known time and location of formation.
The discovery has implications for nuclear forensics, according to Los Alamos National Laboratory on May 17, 2021. “Understanding other countries’ nuclear weapons requires that we have a clear understanding of their nuclear testing programs,” the laboratory quoted Wallace as saying on May 17, 2021. “We typically analyze radioactive debris and gases to understand how the weapons were built or what materials they contained, but those signatures decay. A quasicrystal that is formed at the site of a nuclear blast can potentially tell us new types of information—and they’ll exist forever.”
Live Science quoted Wallace on May 17, 2021, describing the quasicrystal as “magnificent in its complexity,” adding that “nobody can yet tell us why it was formed in this way.”
According to the University of Massachusetts Lowell press release on May 17, 2021, co-author Nelson Eby stated: “The tremendous pressure and temperature generated by an atomic detonation can lead to new forms of quasicrystals that cannot be produced in a laboratory.”
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reported in June 2021 that the discovery could aid nuclear non-proliferation efforts by providing permanent forensic signatures at nuclear test sites. The publication quoted Timothy Ashenfelter from the National Nuclear Security Administration as saying: “There are questions that require the analysis of bomb debris to answer.”
According to PNAS on May 17, 2021, the quasicrystal formed from silicon in the desert sand, copper from vaporized transmission lines, and smaller amounts of calcium and iron from test equipment. The extreme conditions of the nuclear blast created an atomic arrangement that displays the same symmetry as a regular 20-sided icosahedron.
Scientific American quoted Princeton geoscientist Lincoln Hollister on May 18, 2021, suggesting that similar quasicrystals might form in fulgurite created by lightning strikes. Hollister stated on May 18, 2021: “The quasicrystal saga will continue!”
