New State Of Matter In A Quantum Material

Silke Bühler-Paschen (left), Diego Zocco and Diana Kirschbaum. Credit: TU Wien

Vienna University of Technology

Jan. 15, 2025

Researchers have discovered a state in a quantum material that had previously been considered impossible.

The work is published in Nature Physics.

Quantum physics tells us that particles behave like waves and, therefore, their position in space is unknown. Yet in many situations, it still works remarkably well to think of particles in a classical way -- as tiny objects that move from place to place with a certain velocity.

When physicists describe how electric current flows through metals, for example, they imagine electrons racing through the material and being accelerated or deflected by electromagnetic fields.

Even more modern approaches are based on this particle picture -- such as the concept of topological states, whose discovery was honored with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2016. However, there are materials in which the particle picture completely breaks down (see publication below). In such cases, it no longer makes sense to think of electrons as small particles with a well-defined position or a unique velocity.

Now, a research team at TU Wien has shown that such materials can nevertheless exhibit topological properties -- even though these have so far been explained using particle-like behavior. This demonstrates that topological states are more general than previously thought: two seemingly contradictory concepts turn out to be compatible.

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Read More: Phys.org