  A mixed system of cooled and trapped, ions and atoms, paves the way for ion
assisted cold chemistry and novel many body studies. Due to the different
individual trapping mechanisms, trapped atoms are significantly colder than
trapped ions, therefore in the combined system, the strong binary ion$-$atom
interaction results in heat flow from ions to atoms. Conversely, trapped ions
can also get collisionally heated by the cold atoms, making the resulting
equilibrium between ions and atoms intriguing. Here we experimentally
demonstrate, Rubidium ions (Rb$^+$) cool in contact with magneto-optically
trapped (MOT) Rb atoms, contrary to the general expectation of ion heating for
equal ion and atom masses. The cooling mechanism is explained theoretically and
substantiated with numerical simulations. The importance of resonant charge
exchange (RCx) collisions, which allows swap cooling of ions with atoms,
wherein a single glancing collision event brings a fast ion to rest, is
discussed.
