UW-Madison engineers helped reveal the answer to a quantum-mechanical mystery based on measurements of the behavior of electrons on unprecedentedly small time-scales.

The results, published online June 2, 2016, in the journal Science, came from collaboration between researchers at UW-Madison and a team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado at Boulder, who developed a powerful new device for monitoring subatomic particles. Data from the instrument allowed Tibor Szilvási, a postdoctoral researcher in chemical and biological engineering under Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor and Paul A. Elfers Professor Manos Mavrikakis, to assist in explaining a longstanding puzzle in interactions between light and matter.