Can it be used to build lossless power grids and quantum computers? Scientists discover "exotic metals"

According to the British "Independent" website, scientists have discovered a new "exotic metal", a discovery that may become the key to finding an explanation for a phenomenon that has plagued researchers for decades.

Eventually solving this problem could lead to various breakthroughs, such as lossless power grids and quantum computers. It also seems to be related to some fundamental constant of the universe, so it can help reveal how the universe actually works.

Most materials, such as copper and silver, behave predictably and are well understood by researchers, as well as how conductance changes when they are heated or cooled.

But recently, scientists have been focusing on another class of materials called exotic metals. Their behavior does not seem to conform to general electrical rules. Scientists are doubly curious because they believe these metals provide clues to the quantum world and ways to understand other phenomena that have yet to be fully explained.

Now, scientists have discovered another bizarre metal behavior and another unsolved mystery. In this material, the charge is not carried by electrons as is usual, but by so-called Cooper pairs, which are more like waves.

Electrons belong to a class of particles called fermions, while Cooper pairs are bosons that behave very differently. Bizarre metallic behavior has never been found in systems with bosons.

This could ultimately help unravel the decades-long mystery of why this bizarre metal behavior occurred.

Jim Walles, author of the new study and a professor of physics at Brown University, said: "We have these two very different particles whose behavior comes together around a mystery. This means that no theory that explains the behavior of exotic metals can target any one kind of particle. It needs to be more fundamental than that. ”

The study, titled "Characteristics of a Singular Metal in the Boson Subsystem," was published today in the British weekly nature.

The behavior of exotic metals has plagued scientists for 30 years because they found that a class of materials called ketolates behaves differently from other metals. When ordinary metals are heated, their resistance rises until the temperature rises to a point when the resistance becomes constant — but in ketostates, this does not happen, and this strange metal refuses to obey the expected rules.

Researchers don't know why this is the case. But they do know that it seems to be related to two different constants: one related to the energy produced by thermal motion, and the other the Planck's constant related to the energy of light particles.

Valles said: "To try to understand what is happening in these bizarre metals, people have adopted similar mathematical methods to understanding black holes. As a result, some very basic physical phenomena occur in these materials. ”

To better understand why this happens, the scientists used a microporous ketolate material to produce Cooper pairs. They cooled it down and watched how its conductance changed— and found that it behaved like a fermion exotic metal.

This does not explain where this bizarre behavior comes from. But it does give them new information to try to understand it better.

Valles said: "It is difficult for theorists to explain the phenomena we see in exotic metals. Our research shows that if you are going to model the charge transport of exotic metals, this model must apply to both fermions and bosons – although these two types of particles follow completely different rules. (Compilation/Wang Haifang)

Source: Reference News Network