Posted on 07/28/2010 5:27:48 PM PDT by decimon
Study of quantum phase changes reveals surprising relationship between magnetism and electricity
U.S., German and Austrian physicists studying the perplexing class of materials that includes high-temperature superconductors are reporting this week the unexpected discovery of a simple "scaling" behavior in the electronic excitations measured in a related material. The experiments, which were conducted on magnetic heavy-fermion metals, offer direct evidence of the large-scale electronic consequences of "quantum critical" effects.
The experimental and theoretical results are reported this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science by physicists at Rice University in Houston; the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids and the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, both in Dresden, Germany; and the Vienna University of Technology in Austria.
"High-temperature superconductivity has been referred to as the biggest unsolved puzzle in modern physics, and these results provide further support to the idea that correlated electron effects -- including high-temperature superconductivity -- arise out of quantum critical points," said Rice physicist Qimiao Si, the group's lead theorist.
(Excerpt) Read more at media.rice.edu ...
What intrigues me about all this, the complexities of all the the 5 cosmic forces, is the inescapable conclusion that the incredible degree of fine tuning cannot be random.
Nice!
Fractal beer mugs.
Who says we can’t all get along?
;)
next up: FINALLY! a unified theory! (and it's going to involve cheez-whiz or something....)
Says who?
Personally, I’m looking forward to a fractal solution to the following problem, to wit:
How might one release those 4 hook bra closures in the back seat of a 1977 Trans Am parked along a dirt road in fly over country on a Saturday night without being slapped?
Discuss.
perhaps you should be part of the solution instead of the problem? get that graph paper! sharpen those pencils! load new batteries into and fire up your TI!
ok. he looks like if Santa Clause had to get a real job.
Oh, I’ve long since solved the problem.
Just didn’t know if I needed a “fractal backup” for those feisty ones. :)
It's much simpler than it looks :-)
The curve that they are talking about is all corners - it has no smooth sections. There are no breaks in the curve, so you can call it "continuous", but each and every point of it is a jagged corner.
Typically by "differentiating" a thing they mean putting a wooden ruler between two points very near each other and recording which direction the ruler points at.
But as you can see here, if the curve is all corners you can't put a ruler anywhere because it lands on a corner, whatever you do :-) And since your ruler rocks every which way on that corner, the curve is not "differentiable" - there is no single direction the ruler would point to. That's all to it.
That’s just a stein with a print of a fractal. I thought it was a REAL fractal stein, or maybe a klein-stein.
LOL... The last time I used a ruler.. Oh, nevermind..
Did you get Mandelbrot to set it?
[I invited him to the Shoreline Grill one day, but he never made it there.]
mmmmmmmmmm
From your post, I get the impression that the phenomena being discussed are simply artifacts of the explanatory maths.
Schrodinger never owned a damn cat, neither!
Thanks, Greysard.
There are 2 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand calculus and those who don't.
Those who don't understand calculus own 99% of the guns and know how to use them. The reason that you guys can commiserate about bizarre theories like fractals is that the rest of us appreciate smart guys and know that your type developed atomic bombs, computers and DDT.
Don't push it. :)
Science is simplicity. Unlocking the doors to understanding this simplicity is very, very complex.
The original Taco flavored Doritos were the only ones I actually liked, although Black Pepper Jack were ok. They occasionally have a “Taco at Midnight” or some such crap...not very good.
As a rule, I don’t like “coated chips,” with the possible exception of BBQ flavored potato chips.
I wonder how they factor in the fact that they are measuring probable trajectories.
Observation, per Schroedinger, would change the actual trajectory.
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