New State Of Matter Hiding In The Quantum Realm
Physics is difficult enough to learn the ins and outs of, but when you enter the world of quantum physics, states of matter dance to strange tunes we aren’t familiar with. The quantum realm’s extreme conditions can reveal novel states outside of our typical familiar states like solid, liquid, and gas. Scientists and China have unearthed one of these new states of matter this year, which is being referred to as the chiral bose-liquid state.
Chiral Bose-Liquid State
The chiral bose-liquid state can help us learn more about how the world works at a quantum level and is derived from strange particle interactions forced by scientists in a frustrated quantum system.
As we know, solid matter is a result of atoms locked in place, liquid matter is when particles can flow, and gas is a result of particles being dispersed. But we can see new behaviors of matter when we insert experiments like the frustrated quantum system.
Frustrated Quantum System
As mentioned, the chiral bose-liquid state was brought on by a frustrated quantum system, which is a system that is designed to hinder or block the typical ways particles interact.
In this specific system, the scientists focused on electrons in a two-layer semiconductor device that was rich with electrons on top and insufficient holes for electrons to enter in the bottom layer.
Tigran Sedrakyan, a theoretical condensed matter physicist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, compared it to a game of muscle chairs.
Electrons
The system is specifically designed to create a frustrated state for the electrons, as they can’t all simply enter the holes and must find somewhere else to end up.
The team used an incredibly strong magnetic field to measure the movements of the electrons in the system, revealing the chiral bose-liquid state.
Physicist Lingjie Du from Nanjing University elaborated, “On the edge of the semiconductor bilayer, electrons, and holes move with the same velocities.”
Highly Intriguing Properties
He added, “This leads to helical-like transport, which can be further modulated by external magnetic fields as the electron and hole channels are gradually separated under higher fields.”
The chiral bose-liquid state exhibited highly intriguing properties. For one, electrons would freeze in a predictable pattern and fixed spin direction when at absolute zero. This also caused them to be impervious to interference from other particles and magnetic fields in this state.
Like Billiard Balls
The stability of the electrons in the chiral bose-liquid state could hold some promising real-world applications for digital storage systems at the quantum level.
Additionally, the study revealed that the impact of external particles on one electron would affect the rest of the electrons in the system thanks to long-range quantum entanglement.
As ScienceAlert points out, this phenomenon could be compared to a cue ball hitting a group of billiard balls and they all rolled in the same direction, which could also have its own set of applications in the real world.
Quantum Physics Evolving
The realm of quantum physics and quantum mechanics is truly a fascinating one, and the discovery of things like the chiral bose-liquid state shows that we have so much more to learn about the world at a quantum level.
It’s fascinating to see how this field continues to evolve and how we continue to learn more about the fundamental nature of our universe. Make sure to stay tuned for more news about advancements in science.
