There’s a hot new BEC in town that has nothing to do with bacon, egg, and cheese. You won’t find it at your local bodega, but in the coldest place in New York: the lab of Columbia physicist Sebastian Will, whose experimental group specializes in pushing atoms and molecules to temperatures just fractions of a … Read more
In the realm of condensed matter physics, few phenomena captivate physicists’ curiosity as much as Mott insulators. According to traditional theory, this odd class of materials should be capable of conducting electricity, yet they behave mostly as insulators. What’s even more bizarre is that when electrons are added, the material can actually become a superconductor, … Read more
Physicists at MIT and their collaborators have made a fascinating breakthrough in the realm of quantum materials, leading to the discovery of a new method to create a state of matter known as a strange metal. This achievement holds significant promise due to the unique properties of strange metals, which deviate from those of conventional … Read more
A research group led by Prof. Li Xingxing of University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of Chinese Academy of Chinese (CAS) made a reversible topological control in 2D organometallic lattices achieved through tautomerization. Their work was published in Advanced Functional Materials. Topological materials have been gaining interest in condensed matter physics due to their topologically protected … Read more
Science is taking a step forward in the quest for superconductors that will not require ultra-high pressure to function, thanks to multinational research led by Xiaojia Chen at the University of Houston. “It has long been superconductivity researchers’ goal to ease or even eliminate the critical controls currently required regarding temperature and pressure,” said Chen, … Read more
In a significant development in the field of superconductivity, researchers at The University of Manchester have successfully achieved robust superconductivity in high magnetic fields using a newly created one-dimensional (1D) system. This breakthrough offers a promising pathway to achieving superconductivity in the quantum Hall regime, a longstanding challenge in condensed matter physics. Superconductivity, the ability … Read more
Physicists have observed a novel quantum effect termed “hybrid topology” in a crystalline material. This finding opens up a new range of possibilities for the development of efficient materials and technologies for next-generation quantum science and engineering. The finding, published in Nature, came when Princeton scientists discovered that an elemental solid crystal made of arsenic … Read more
Research often unfolds as a multistage process. The solution to one question can spark several more, inspiring scientists to reach further and look at the larger problem from several different perspectives. Such projects can often be the catalyst for collaborations that leverage the expertise and capabilities of different teams and institutions as they grow. For … Read more
Condensed matter systems and photonic technologies are regularly used by researchers to create microscale platforms that can simulate the complex dynamics of many interacting quantum particles in a more accessible setting. Some examples include ultracold atomic ensembles in optical lattices, superconducting arrays, and photonic crystals and waveguides. In 2006 a new platform emerged with the … Read more
Scientists have created a reprogrammable light-based processor, a world-first, that they say could usher in a new era of quantum computing and communication. Technologies in these emerging fields that operate at the atomic level are already realizing big benefits for drug discovery and other small-scale applications. In the future, large-scale quantum computers promise to be … Read more
There is no doubt that water is significant. Without it, life would never have begun, let alone continue today—not to mention its role in the environment itself, with oceans covering over 70% of Earth. But despite its ubiquity, liquid water features some electronic intricacies that have long puzzled scientists in chemistry, physics, and technology. For … Read more
The Big Bang is the prevailing cosmological model that describes the observable universe’s origin and early expansion. It proposes that approximately 13.8 billion years ago, the entire cosmos existed as an extremely hot and dense singularity, a point of infinite density. Suddenly, it underwent an exponential expansion, leading to the formation of space, time, and … Read more
Physics, often referred to as the fundamental science, is a branch of natural science that seeks to understand the fundamental principles governing the behavior of matter and energy in the universe. It is a discipline that explores the properties of the smallest particles at the quantum level and the vastness of cosmic structures at the … Read more
In 1960, Joaquin Luttinger put forth a universal statement linking a system’s total particle capacity to its behavior during low-energy excitations. Although Luttinger’s theorem is typically confirmed in systems of independent particles, it intriguingly extends to correlated quantum matter with robust particle interactions. Despite its general validity, Luttinger’s theorem faces surprising failures in specific instances … Read more
Quantum Field Theory (QFT) stands as one of the cornerstones of modern theoretical physics, providing a powerful framework for understanding the fundamental particles and forces that make up the universe. Born out of the synthesis of quantum mechanics and special relativity, quantum field theory describes particles as excitations of underlying fields permeating space and time. … Read more
A team of physicists at the University of Cologne has solved a long-standing problem of condensed matter physics: they have directly observed the Kondo effect (the re-grouping of electrons in a metal caused by magnetic impurities) visible in a single artificial atom. This has not been done successfully in the past, since the magnetic orbitals … Read more
Electrons and phonons, both fundamental particles in condensed matter physics, exhibit intriguing interactions in single crystals, giving rise to various captivating phenomena like polaritons, charge density waves, and up-conversion fluorescence. In laser crystals, the lattice vibrations can influence the electronic transitions of active ions, causing emitted photon energy to change through the creation or annihilation … Read more
An international team of researchers, led by The University of Hong Kong (HKU) and The University of Science and Technology (HKUST), has achieved a groundbreaking discovery in the realm of quantum materials. They have unveiled the ability to control the nonlinear Hall effect in twisted bilayer graphene, shedding new light on the exceptional characteristics of … Read more
The concept of “quantum transport” might evoke futuristic thoughts of advanced commuting, but in the realm of condensed matter physics, it holds significance in understanding how electrons move within solid and fluid materials. Recent research into iron-containing magnetic insulators within extremely clean systems has brought increased focus to the hydrodynamic behavior of “magnons” – quasi-particles … Read more
Researchers at Tokyo Tech have achieved a remarkable feat in the realm of topological phases within physical systems. They successfully controlled the Chern number, a crucial invariant quantity that characterizes these phases. Their experiment focused on an electronic-nuclear spin system, specifically the nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond. This achievement opens up exciting opportunities for delving into … Read more