A mystery that had intrigued scientists for decades is closer to being resolved.
A group of researchers first found evidence nature of a state of matter that had been described 40 years ago but had not been observed so far.
This state, known as “quantum fluid spin “, causes the electrons-the” “indivisible of matter breaking into pieces.
And those fractionated particles, called ” bricks Majorana fermions “could hold the key to building quantum computers , much faster than conventional computers.
” This is the first time we have a theory very controlled on the subject . So far, only been developed experiments, but nothing controlled, “he told BBC World Johannes Knolle, the Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge, and coauthor of a new study published in the journal Nature Materials.
We are facing a new quantum state of matter “
Johannes Knolle, Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge
Knolle and his team were able to measure the footprint of these Majorana fermions in a two-dimensional material with similar graphene structure.
“we are facing a new quantum state of matter had been predicted but had never been observed before, “Knolle said.
” This is a new addition to a short list of quantum states known of matter “, he added .
But what does this discovery and what it has to do with computing?
magnetic Frustration
As pointed Knolle, this is not the first time that important findings are made on the issue.
The Spanish scientist Jose A. Rodriguez Rivera, the National Institute of Standards and Technology US (NIST, for its acronym in English), was part of the team that experimented with quantum liquid spin in 2012.
according to Rodriguez, for understand the scope of the new discovery is important to know what the magnetic frustration, which causes “by their nature, some atoms tend to sorted so that all their spins pointing in one direction ” he told the specialist told the BBC.
Some of the materials with these properties are iron and nickel.
“these frustrations are temperature dependent and are reduced to lower it. Usually at very low temperatures these materials end up rearranging “.
is called spin liquid because its disordered states are the magnetic analog of actual liquid
José A. Rodríguez Rivera, NIST
“But theoretically there may be material, even at zero absolute, 0 Kelvin (equivalent to -273 degrees Celsius), do not reach the order and are frustrated (there are fluctuations in the spins). “
quantum soup
Instead, these materials form a kind of quantum soup of particles intertwined that entangle quantum fluctuations.
According to Rodriguez, which is “incredible” is that the system “can continue to live at 0 kelvin”.
and, as explained by the expert, to that state of matter “is liquid called spin that your disordered states would be magnetic to what happens with real liquids “ analog.
This discovery is being seen as a milestone in physics and could pose a breakthrough for quantum computing.
And is that Majorana fermions could be used as building blocks of quantum computers .
“the particles Majorana could be very useful in the future in regards to quantum computing, “said Johannes Knolle.
Dmitry Kovrizhin, another study author, said that” this is an important step in understanding quantum matter “.
” And it’s fun to have a new quantum state that nobody had ever seen before, because it opens possibilities to try new things, “he said.
But, says Jose A. Rodriguez, “there are several materials that exhibit characteristics of quantum spin liquids.”
“the difference is the type and amount of evidence we have to ensure that these materials are a liquid spin “.
” We still need more studies to ensure 100% what materials are really magnetic liquids “he said.
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