Highly charged ions: Multiply-ionized atoms for clocks, qubits, and constants
The world is mostly neutral. That is, most of the atoms in our environment are electrically neutral. The number of electrons in the outer parts of atoms equals the number of protons at the centers of atoms. As one or more electrons are plucked away from the atoms, the remaining electrons feel a much stronger positive pull from the nucleus. This enhanced pull, causing the atoms to shrink in size, ensures that those electrons are less vulnerable to the distractions of their environment, making them potentially valuable for next-generation atomic clocks, for quantum information schemes (where the loss of quantum coherence in qubits is a paramount danger), and for experiments trying to detect slight variations in the fine structure constant, the parameter that sets the overall strength of the electromagnetic force.