Despite the advances in atomic physics in the past 100 years, no scientist has been able to solve analytically a problem involving an atom composed of more than two bodies.

In recent months, however, two Old Dominion physicists, working together with a colleague in Ireland, have made a significant contribution to understanding the helium atom. They have developed a theoretical model to explain physical results obtained in the 1990s by German physicists, but which heretofore had resisted explanation.

The GWW theory team – the initials coming from the scientists’ last names – is made up of Alex Godunov, ODU research assistant professor, Colm T. Whelan, ODU eminent scholar and chair of the physics department, and Professor H.R.J. Walters of The Queen’s University, Belfast.

Their work is likely to impact not only physics, but also chemistry and research in superconductivity.

The two bodies of the hydrogen atom – a proton (or nucleus) and one electron – have submitted to a solution, but the complications presented by a helium atom with one alpha particle (nucleus) and two electrons have not been overcome. For a crude analogy relating to the electrons, think of a mother facing the task of keeping track of two hyperactive children. Keeping an eye on one, while challenging, is possible. But add a second kinetic child to the brood and her task becomes overwhelming.

“This is a very major result,” said Professor J.H. McGuire of Tulane University, who is the chair of the Division of Atomic and Molecular Physics of the American Physical Society. “The GWW theory from Old Dominion goes to the heart of the problem. The (German) experiments, which are state of the art, have resisted theoretical explanation for some time. This now opens useful, new possibilities for probing correlation in matter, a key, but difficult problem present in various areas of science.”

Correlation in matter is important in any system with more than two particles and where there is collective rather than independent particle behavior. Whelan said the task ahead for physicists is to “see how far we can drive this, to look at different ways of describing a helium atom before moving on to other systems.”