Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: The term "superatom" was introduced over three decades ago to describe clusters that emulate elemental atoms. The field has long been guided by the spherical jellium model, where magic numbers arise from shell closure of delocalized electrons. This Perspective argues that delocalization, not near-sphericity, is what makes a system atom-like. It shows that superatomic shell structure persists under arbitrary point-group symmetry, that superatomicity survives as a tunable quantum state across pressurized, ionized, and chemically precompressed systems, and that the symmetry rules governing superatoms are conditional, deeper than the jellium picture admits. The future of this field lies not in finding more magic numbers, but in exploiting superatomic states as artificial quantum systems at the atomic level.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Author: Wang, Zhigang
Institution: Jilin University
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: 超原子间的相互作用理论研究, G3104115121, G8521197973
OpenAlex ID: W7203664886
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