The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (or MIT as all the kids call it) is at the forefront of all sorts of research and technology. They've been responsible for all sorts of discoveries, breakthroughs, and innovations, and it looks like they've done it again.
Gases, Liquids, and Solids, eat your respective hearts out.
Extreme Tech
The QSL in picture form.
But why does this matter, well, matter? Well, this discovery has the potential to boost data storage and communications, and it could foster higher-temperature superconductors. Since a development like this is so unprecedented, there may be other benefits that we simply can't see foresee yet. We're looking at a brand new frontier here.
Plus, seeing this unique form of magnetism is also pretty cool, though I'll be the first to admit I don't fully understand it.
Seriously, fucking magnets - how do they work?
Gases, Liquids, and Solids, eat your respective hearts out.
Researchers at MIT have discovered a new state of matter with a new kind of magnetism. This new state, called a quantum spin liquid (QSL), could lead to significant advances in data storage. QSLs also exhibit a quantum phenomenon called long-range entanglement, which could lead to new types of communications systems, and more.
...In the case of quantum spin liquids, the material is a solid crystal — but the internal magnetic state is constantly in flux. The magnetic orientations of the electrons (their magnetic moment) fluctuate as they interact with other nearby electrons. “But there is a strong interaction between them, and due to quantum effects, they don’t lock in place,” says Young Lee, senior author of the research. It is these strong interactions that apparently allow for long-range quantum entanglement.
The existence of QSLs has been theorized since 1987, but until now no one has succeeded in actually finding one. In MIT’s case, the researchers spent 10 months growing a tiny sliver of herbertsmithite (pictured above) — a material that was suspected to be a QSL, but which had never been properly investigated. (Bonus points if you can guess who herbertsmithite is named after.) Using neutron scattering — firing a beam of neutrons at a material to analyze its structure — the researchers found that the herbertsmithite was indeed a QSL.
The QSL in picture form.
But why does this matter, well, matter? Well, this discovery has the potential to boost data storage and communications, and it could foster higher-temperature superconductors. Since a development like this is so unprecedented, there may be other benefits that we simply can't see foresee yet. We're looking at a brand new frontier here.
Plus, seeing this unique form of magnetism is also pretty cool, though I'll be the first to admit I don't fully understand it.
Seriously, fucking magnets - how do they work?