a group of scientists discovered a new state of matter

In the 1960s, more than half a century ago, the international scientific community relied on solid helium (which is produced only at very high pressures and at very low temperatures, turning into crystal) to assert that he was the number one candidate. would demonstrate the theory of supersolids. What was pointed out was that there was a new affair with solid and liquid properties at the same time.

Until today they have not achieved any results, but science continued to seek new approaches to verify the existence of this state. One of them is the case of quantum gases, a unique window into the world of macroscopic quantum phenomena.

Now, a recent study by Nature noted that the supersolid states simultaneously exhibit properties typically associated with a solid and a superfluid.

The research team led by the scientist Francesca Ferlaino, from the University of Innsbruck, has succeeded in generating, for the first time in parallel with other laboratories at the universities of Pisa and Stuttgart, supersolid states from highly magnetic quantum gases from highly magnetic lanthanide atoms.

“Due to quantum effects, a very cold gas of atoms can spontaneously develop both a solid crystal order and a particle flow like superfluid quantum liquid, i.e. a fluid capable of flowing without any friction“Ferlaino explained. That is, he has the structure of a crystal, but the particles in their inside “flows” like a liquidbecause they are relocated.

Besides Ferlaino, Matthew Norcia, Claudia Politi, Lauritz Klaus, Elena Poli, Maximilian Sohmen, Manfred Mark, Russell Bisset and Luis Santos took part in the work. The idea was to first imagine in the bulk solid helium background, as a possible answer to the question of whether a solid could have superfluid properties.

Although, despite repeated attempts, they failed to observe supersolidity in solid helium, ultra-cold atomic gases offer an alternative approach, which has recently enabled the observation and study of supersolids with dipole atoms. . However, unlike the phenomena proposed in helium, these gaseous systems up to now they have only shown super solidity in one direction.

“With our discovery, we demonstrate the extension of the properties of two-dimensional supersolids into the preparation of a supersolid quantum gas of dysprosium atoms on both sides of a structural phase transition similar to those that occur in ionic chains, quantum threads and theoretically in chains of individual dipolar particles, ”the study states. This opens up the possibility of studying rich excitation properties, including the vortex formation and the phases of the ground state with a varied geometric structure in a highly flexible and controllable system.

Magnetic interaction causes atoms to self-organize into a sort of “droplet” and to organize themselves in a regular pattern. In other words, it has been possible to “convince” a subject which tends to extend to which is rearranged in a regular and delimited structure.

The new study goes further. Until today, supersolid states in quantum gases have only been observed as a chain of droplets, along a single dimension. It’s now done extend the phenomenon to two dimensions, which broadens the prospects of the investigation. Something like being able to look at this new state from different angles.

“For example, in a two-dimensional supersolid system, you can study the formation of vortices in the hole between several adjacent drops,” says Ferlaino. These theoretically described vortices have not yet been proven.but they represent an important consequence of superfluidity.