Posted on 12/06/2016 3:22:37 PM PST by BenLurkin
The ytterbium crystal was first synthesized a year ago by scientists in China, where the government in Beijing has invested heavily in hopes of creating synthetic quantum materials with novel properties. It appears they may have now succeeded, said Mourigal, an assistant professor at Georgia Tech's School of Physics.
"Imagine a state of matter where this entanglement doesn't involve two electrons but involves, three, five, 10 or 10 billion particles all in the same system," Mourigal said. "You can create a very, very exotic state of matter based on the fact that all these particles are entangled with each other. There are no individual particles anymore, but one huge electron ensemble acting collectively."
One of the only previously observed apparent quantum spin liquids occurs in a natural crystal called herbertsmithite, an emerald green stone found in 1972 in a mine in Chile. It was named after mineralogist Herbert Smith, who died nearly 20 years prior to the discovery.
Researchers observed its apparent spin liquid nature in 2012 after Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists succeeded at reproducing a purified piece of the crystal in their lab.
Because of its chemical makeup, herbertsmithite produces just one single entanglement scheme. Physics math says there must be myriads more.
"Finding herbertsmithite was like saying, 'animals exist.' But there are so many different species of animals, or mammals, or fish, reptiles and birds," Mourigal said. "Now that we have found one, we are looking for different kinds of spin liquids."
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
can’t use thermal? IR?
they must see something for them to make these announcements, show us what they see
That I do understand...from my younger days.
Thermal or Blackbody radiation is a function of temperature. Sitting as close to zero as a Bose Condensate does means effectively xero radiation.
They probe it with small bursts of laser light , a billionth of a second flash.
thx, no image taken
ping
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