The findings in this regard are the work of scientists from Rice University and the Technical University of Vienna. These are what they write in their publications SciencesMeasuring quantum charge fluctuations in quantum materials. As it turns out, in certain conditions it behaves like a liquid.
Read also: Few people know that these batteries are made in Poland. It does not contain lithium and is cheaper
The cause of all this confusion was a compound consisting of ytterbium, rhodium and silicon. The nanowires made from them showed surprisingly low noise levels, allowing us to assume that the charge carriers were not quasiparticles, such as those observed in common metals. As members of the research team explained, this material exhibits a high degree of quantum entanglement, causing temperature-dependent behavior.
What behaviors are we talking about? For example, cooling it below a critical temperature causes it to instantly transform from a nonmagnetic state to a magnetic state. However, at temperatures slightly above the critical threshold, a state occurs in which quasiparticles with charges much larger than electrons form. The conclusions reached are very important because they constitute direct evidence of the amazing mineral nature of this material.
The material, composed of ytterbium, rhodium, and silicon, has been shown to be highly temperature dependent due to its high degree of quantum entanglement.
When observing metals such as silver and gold, their quasiparticles are clearly defined quantum objects, whose existence is the result of the interaction of many electrons. In the case of the materials analyzed by researchers from the United States and Austria, these properties appear to be very complex – and the charge transfer that occurs is also more collective.
By measuring quantum charge fluctuations in nanowires, scientists wanted to see if they could confirm a particular hypothesis. They expected that the flowing current consisted of a bundle of discrete charge carriers. Their distances from each other must be variable, sometimes smaller, sometimes larger.
Read also: A quantum dot like no other. The machine has accomplished in a few hours what would take a human being many years
The low noise identified during the observations is likely confirmation that the electrons are about to localize, while the quasiparticles disappear at the Fermi surface, a surface in reciprocal space that separates occupied and unoccupied electronic states at zero temperature. The information gathered provides important clues about how charge and current carriers are intertwined with other quantum-important factors underlying this mysterious metal. According to the authors of the new study, this is an important aspect of experiments dedicated to understanding the quantum physics of these materials.
