Scientists discover exotic quantum state of matter

Princeton University via PhysOrg.com ^ | April 24, 2008 | NA

[Phil Southern]

uhhh, ummmm, ok. Seriously, what are some future applications or implications of this discovery? Seems to me like the crystal development aspects are the bigger story......

[B-Chan]

Horst Stormer of Bell Laboratories

Great name. I wish my name was Horst Stormer.

[21twelve]

The electrons in the atom-thin layer seemed to “cooperate” and work together to form what scientists call a “quantum fluid,” an extremely rare situation where electrons act identically, in lock-step, more like soup than as individually spinning units.

Well, I'm just an idiot when it comes to things like this - but I think this sentence says something important. I'm guessing that whenever something is orderly rather than random is a good thing - especially when it comes to electrons.

How about thin, ultra-efficient batteries or something?

[Captain Beyond]

bump

[DragonMarine]

Your username is a Rush Album?

[LibWhacker]

...an extremely rare situation where electrons act identically, in lock-step, more like soup...

Soup marches in lock-step? Wow! Well, there was that soup Nazi guy.

[wastedyears]

That was Greek to me.

I’d like it in layman’s terms.

[21twelve]

Yeah. I tried 2112 but that didn’t work. Probably just as well as that is a little too obvious and not much fun.

[wastedyears]

[wastedyears]

Now I’m listening to Passage to Bangkok.

[21twelve]

A quantum leap forward
In time and in space
The universe learned to expand
The mess and the magic
Triumphant and tragic
A mechanized world out of hand

RUSH: Natural Science - II. Hyperspace, verse 1

Fitting lyrics for a geeky thread with some Rush fans on it!

[wastedyears]

Nice

:)

[neverdem]

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html

[dr_lew]

The electrons in the atom-thin layer seemed to “cooperate” and work together to form what scientists call a “quantum fluid,” an extremely rare situation where electrons act identically, in lock-step, more like soup than as individually spinning units.

This is standard heuristics to talk about certain excited quantum states of solid matter. Conduction electrons in metal are such an excited state, but the single electron approximation works well, so the heuristics for that are just in terms of electrons whizzing around. When there are strong enough interactions between the crystal lattice ( say ) and the electrons, then the excited quantum states involve motion not just of one electron, but two or more electrons and motion of the lattice as well. Superconductivity is the most famous example.

This all follows standard quantum theory, but the theory is a lot more difficult to work out, and the experimental conditions often involve low temperatures to allow these interactions to come into play.

It's all very interesting, but nothing profoundly new. My favorite of these is the Mossbauer effect, or "zero phonon line". In this case the cooperation is total, and the theory is simple. A nucleus in a crystal lattice absorbs or emits a particle, and the entire lattice absorbs the recoil momentum. It doesn't sound so exciting, but you have to realize this is complete quantum weirdness. Classically, if you ping one element of the lattice, you excite a pulse composed of a variety of plane waves, which then propagates and dissipates. In QM, this pulse is probabilistically separated into components, so the same thing doesn't happen every time, and in fact you get this zero phonon line as one component of the spectrum. The effect was used in some of the Mars Sojourner instrumentation to examine the surface of martian rocks.

[21twelve]

I read your entire post and found it 100% very interesting, while understanding very little! (That’s why it is so interesting/amazing). Especially interesting with respect to the Mar’s rocks.

[dr_lew]

BTW, the "ultrafast Xray photons" they mention is a reference to EXAFS, "Extended Xray Absorption Fine Structure. ( I remembered it as XASFS, which did get a few hits. ) In this technique, the Xrays knock out the inner core electrons of the atoms, and as they are replaced by conduction electrons falling into the core the analysis of the emitted xrays is used to probe the density and energy distribution of the electrons in the material. This was a standard technique by the time I was in grad school in the 70's.

[dr_lew]

I always liked the Moody Blues, In Search of the Lost Chord:

This garden universe vibrates complete.
Some we get a sound so sweet.
Vibrations reach on up to become light,
And then thru gamma, out of sight.
Between the eyes and ears there lay,
The sounds of colour and the light of a sigh.
And to hear the sun, what a thing to believe.
But it’s all around if we could but perceive.
To know ultra-violet, infra-red and X-rays,
Beauty to find in so many ways.
Two notes of the chord, that’s our fluoroscope.
But to reach the chord is our lifes hope.
And to name the chord is important to some.
So they give a word, and the word is OM.

( That track is The Word, with credit to Graeme Edge )

About the only example of simple science appreciation in rock music that I can think of. ... and something I never thought of until this moment, one small stroke converts OM to QM !

The rain is on the roof
Hurry high, butterfly

... Oh yeah! Oh yeah!

[JubJub]

Yup...just another late night discussion on FR!

[Right Wing Assault]

I wish my name was Horst Stormer.

I like Klaus von Klitzing.