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You turn on a switch and the light turns on because the electricity is flowing. The usual perception is that it is as if you were opening a faucet and the water was starting to flow. But this analogy is misleading. The flow of water is determined by the theory of hydrodynamics, where fluid behavior requires no knowledge of the motions of individual molecules.
However, the electric currents in solids are formed by electrons. In metals, electrons do not collide with each other, but disperse with network faults. In conventional materials, the movement of electrons thus appears more to the movement of the balls in a pinball machine.
The hydrodynamic electron flux can only be observed in quantum materials of high purity. An international team of members from the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, the University of Hamburg and the Max Planck Institute of Solid Chemical Physics has now found signatures of the hydrodynamics of electrons in the diphosphide of semi-metallic tungsten. The results were published in Nature Communications. Looking more closely, one could show that the hydrodynamic behavior of electrons is rooted in the highly interacting quantum nature of the electronic system.
In addition, it is surprising that these observations are compatible with mathematical techniques derived from string theory. These techniques have been used to describe strongly interacting forms of quantum matter and to predict that the conversion of any form of energy into thermal energy is fundamentally limited by quantum mechanics.
The experiments were made possible by advances in the development of new nanofabrication materials and techniques.
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Material provided by Max Planck Institute for Solid Chemical Physics. Note: Content can be changed for style and length.
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