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New quantum state of matter found at interface of exotic materials
- ankitg12 1y agoAnyone knows if there are examples of such states, which were discovered in very specific conditions in lab, to be found outside? Does creation/discovery of such states help in explaining any hitherto unexplainable observations?
- exe34 1y agoIt never ceases to amaze me how many different effects exist in the Universe, waiting for us to discover/exploit. I wonder how many features you could comment out and we'd still be able to evolve, v/s how many of these quirks we depend on for even existing?!
- joules77 1y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinch_(plasma_physics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinch_(plasma_physics)
- setopt 1y agoThe precise state of matter studied in this paper I think is unlikely to exist "naturally". But yes there are states of matter that exist in nature but are just not obvious until you study them carefully in a lab. For example antiferromagnets exist in nature at naturally cold temperatures (see hematite), but unless you’re looking for them, they just look like normal nonmagnetic solids. Thus they were discovered millennia after ferromagnets. But there are more exotic states that were first discovered in labs and later theorized to exist in nature, but that have not yet been proven. One example of such a theory is that a superconductivity-like state might occur naturally in neuron stars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_superconductivity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_superconductivity
- TheOtherHobbes 1y agoI'll assume you meant "neutron stars." But "neuron stars" is still an intriguing typo.
- idiotsecant 1y agoComputronium
- BobbyTables2 1y agoAlways wondered about this. Even magnets and plasma aren’t blatantly obvious until one sees them in action. In the early da, someone magnetizing a piece of iron must have seemed like utter witchcraft…
- refactor_master 1y ago"State of matter" isn't exactly a useful description in this particular case, but it's interesting that enzyme catalysis cannot be explained fully by classical chemistry/physics alone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_tunnelling#Biology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_tunnelling#Biology
- malux85 1y agoPretty interesting, I recently build an nth order spherical harmonics encoder that can encode the electronic structure of a local environment (of n Å) into a high dimensional fingerprint. We can then use this to search against a big TB dataset of known structures we built to see if we can find analogous configurations. I've started building the structure in the article, I'm interested to see what a search turns up.
- foltik 1y agoNeat! Which spherical harmonics descriptor are you using, and what does your in-house TB dataset cover? What do you plan to do with any matches you find?
- evrennetwork 1y ago[dead]
- koolba 1y agoFrom the article: > Weyl semimetals are materials that allow electricity to flow in unusual ways with very high speed and zero energy loss because of special relativistic quasi-particles called Weyl fermions. Spin ice, on the other hand, are magnetic materials where the magnetic moments (tiny magnetic fields within the material) are arranged in a way that resembles the positions of hydrogen atoms in ice. When these two materials are combined, they create a heterostructure, composed of atomic layers of dissimilar materials. I’m not going to pretend to understand how any of this works. How long do you have to work in physics until you grok things like this? And how much longer until you get to come up with cool names like “spin ice”.
- frutiger 1y ago> How long do you have to work in physics until you grok things like this? By the end of an undergraduate degree, especially if you elect courses in advanced particle physics.
- nyeah 1y agoThis is solid-state, not particle physics.
- ankitml 1y agoSo your claim is spin ice as a concept doesnt exist in particle physics and would not be discussed outside solid state?
- nyeah 1y agoI claim the article is about solid-state physics. Otherwise, any claim that doesn't appear in my comment ... ? Not my claim.
- frutiger 1y agoIndeed. Fermions are usually taught in particle physics, especially when distinguishing Weyl/Majorana/Dirac fermions.
- mosesbp 1y agoIf you think this is cool/valuable, I just want to point out that this work is being paid for by the DOE Office of Science (BES division), uses the NSF National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, and is using money from an NSF CAREER award (“Acknowledgments” section under “Funding” in the actual paper [1]). The former is facing a cut of 14% [2] (The Office of Science overall is seeing a similar cut), the second is facing a 40% cut [3], and the latter appears to be destroyed entirely (no money requested) [4] in documents released by these agencies for FY2026 (executive budget). This research is also supported by Chinese funding agencies, who I imagine will not be engaging such senseless hamstringing of their national scientific organs… [1] https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adr6202 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adr6202 [2] See page 5 of https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/doe-fy-2026-vol-5.pdf https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/doe-fy-20... [3] See page “Facilities - 5” of https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/00-NSF-FY26-CJ-Entire-Rollup.pdf https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/00-NSF-FY26-CJ-Entir... [4] See page “Summary Tables - 1” of the link in [3].
- sharpshadow 1y agoThe focus for the next decades is set for war, the cuts everywhere are not random. I doubt that there can be done much in the near future.
- arresin 1y agoWhen commenters say stuff like this I never know if they mean grants that went to funding utter taxpayer theft like this: https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/04/national-science-foundation-cancels-research-grants-related-to-misinformation-and-disinformation/ https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/04/national-science-foundatio... Or real science. So I just tune out.