Unusual Quantum State of Matter Observed For the First Time (phys.org) 17
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: It's not every day that someone comes across a new state of matter in quantum physics, the scientific field devoted to describing the behavior of atomic and subatomic particles in order to elucidate their properties. Yet this is exactly what an international team of researchers that includes Andrea Bianchi, University of Montreal physics professor and researcher at the Regroupement quebecois sur les materiaux de pointe, and his students Avner Fitterman and Jeremi Dudemaine has done. In a recent article published in the scientific journalPhysical Review X, the researchers document a "quantum spin liquid ground state" in a magnetic material created in Bianchi's lab: Ce2Zr2O7, a compound composed of cerium, zirconium and oxygen. In quantum physics, spin is an internal property of electrons linked to their rotation. It is spin that gives the material in a magnet its magnetic properties.
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Ce2Zr2O7 is a cerium-based material with magnetic properties. "The existence of this compound was known," said Bianchi. "Our breakthrough was creating it in a uniquely pure form. We used samples melted in an optical furnace to produce a near-perfect triangular arrangement of atoms and then checked the quantum state." It was this near-perfect triangle that enabled Bianchi and his team at UdeM to create magnetic frustration in Ce2Zr2O7. Working with researchers at McMaster and Colorado State universities, Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex System in Dresden, Germany, they measured the compound's magnetic diffusion. "Our measurements showed an overlapping particle function -- therefore no Bragg peaks -- a clear sign of the absence of classical magnetic order," said Bianchi. "We also observed a distribution of spins with continuously fluctuating directions, which is characteristic of spin liquids and magnetic frustration. This indicates that the material we created behaves like a true spin liquid at low temperatures." After corroborating these observations with computer simulations, the team concluded that they were indeed witnessing a never-before-seen quantum state.
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Ce2Zr2O7 is a cerium-based material with magnetic properties. "The existence of this compound was known," said Bianchi. "Our breakthrough was creating it in a uniquely pure form. We used samples melted in an optical furnace to produce a near-perfect triangular arrangement of atoms and then checked the quantum state." It was this near-perfect triangle that enabled Bianchi and his team at UdeM to create magnetic frustration in Ce2Zr2O7. Working with researchers at McMaster and Colorado State universities, Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex System in Dresden, Germany, they measured the compound's magnetic diffusion. "Our measurements showed an overlapping particle function -- therefore no Bragg peaks -- a clear sign of the absence of classical magnetic order," said Bianchi. "We also observed a distribution of spins with continuously fluctuating directions, which is characteristic of spin liquids and magnetic frustration. This indicates that the material we created behaves like a true spin liquid at low temperatures." After corroborating these observations with computer simulations, the team concluded that they were indeed witnessing a never-before-seen quantum state.
Not Rotation (Score:5, Informative)
TFS makes an inaccurate, but common and thus unsurprising statement:
In quantum physics, spin is an internal property of electrons linked to their rotation
Electrons are point particles and do not rotate. Spin is a quantum property that has the same units as angular momentum and thus is treated mathematically the same way, but does not mean that there is any actual rotation involved. The Planck constant also has the same units and angular momentum and also does not involve anything rotating. In fact the normal practice is to divide the spin value of particle by the reduced Planck constant to get a dimensionless quantity that characterizes its "spin state", but helpfully removes the units of angular momentum.
Einstein de Haas Effect (Score:5, Informative)
Spin is a quantum property that has the same units as angular momentum and thus is treated mathematically the same way, but does not mean that there is any actual rotation involved.
That's not entirely correct. While we do not think of the electron as rotating, the spin of the electron is not just treated mathematically the same way as an angular momentum, it truly is a physical angular momentum. Flipping spins can indeed cause physical rotation of objects due to the associated change in angular momentum: it's called the Einstein-de Haas Effect [wikipedia.org].
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Colloquial English is lossy when it comes to quantum stuff.
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Human thinking is lossy when it comes to quantum stuff. There simply aren't any macro-scale analogs for a lot of quantum behaviour.
I swear (Score:2)
This paper was generated with AI, it's a string of buzzwords
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When I read it I first thought it was about web3 and NFTs.
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We're putting the Ce2Zr2O7 NFT up for auction next Tuesday. Get your coins ready.
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It's likely a result of poor translation. the Université de Montréal is a French language institution, though obviously, working with English language schools it had to also publish in English.
Shout out to my alma mater.
What's the bet... (Score:1)
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Magnetic Frustration (Score:1)
I've seen it (Score:2)
It's called Microsoft Teams.
Can someone translate this to English, please? (Score:2)
Not everyone has a degree in Quantum Physics.
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I don't have a degree in Quantum Physics, but I did have to endure some while studying Chemistry.
First thing is that electrons have a property called spin. It's not as simple as a ball spinning around an axis, but there are some similarities. In most atoms the electrons exist in spin pairs with one 'up' and one 'down' spin. Again, 'up' and 'down' are just labels for a quantum state they don't match the ups and downs of our physical world.
This cerium zirconium oxide crystal is interesting because while the m
Ah, but did they... (Score:2)
account for the quasi-linear subduction vortices caused by adhesion creep in the hyperdimensional margins? Mom thinks their paracolimator needs recalibration, or at least a good degaussing.
nicolay (Score:1)