They discovered new states of matter. The conditions they worked in were truly extreme.

To do this, they had to create an environment of truly extreme conditions. The temperatures were around -273 degrees Celsius, a fraction of a degree above the lowest temperature in the universe, known as absolute zero. In contrast, the magnetic fields generated by the experiments were about 100,000 times stronger than Earth’s magnetic fields.

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The focus of the research team’s interest was the FQHE, or partial quantum Hall effect. Under “normal” conditions, the Hall effect refers to the situation where there is a potential difference in a conductor through which an electric current is flowing, and the conductor itself is in a magnetic field transverse to the flowing current.

With the fractional quantum Hall effect, things get even stranger, because under such conditions particles can have fractional charges and behave in ways that at first glance seem to defy the laws of physics. The results of the systematic experiments were so surprising that researchers spent a lot of time explaining the phenomena behind them.

Scientists have used research into the partial quantum Hall effect to discover previously unknown states of matter.

In addition to the theoretical dimension of these new results, the potential practical applications of the successes of scientists from the United States will also be important. There is talk of real benefits related to technologies related to computers, smartphones and solar cells. This means practical advantages for consumer electronics and energy.

For their research, the authors used semiconductor elements made of gallium arsenide and aluminum gallium arsenide. The two-dimensional structures were supposed to be an ideal environment for electrons to move within them. When an additional electrical current was introduced to the system, the effect was unexpected because the scientists saw something they had never seen before.

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This led them to the conclusion that they were dealing with previously unknown physical states. In addition to the above-mentioned areas, the progress made should also be translated into quantum computing and materials science. Large-scale data processing, the design of new materials with useful properties, or the efficient and environmentally friendly production of energy are certainly the areas that are currently trending. However, the interested parties do not intend to stop. They announced that they will conduct experiments in more extreme conditions and use additional tools to expand the research methodology. The successes so far clearly show the extent of the potential available in research in the field of quantum physics.