According to a research led by the University of Cambridge, evidence of a mysterious new state of matter has been found in a material. The state was first proposed by physicist Phil Anderson in 1973. Electrons were supposed to be indivisible building blocks of nature. But this state known as ‘quantum spin liquid’ causes electrons to break into pieces.

The discovery of electron splitting in a real material can be a revolutionary one because the fractional particles that come into being (these are known as Majorana fermions) after splitting of electrons can be used in quantum computers. Quantum spin liquids are mysterious states of matter thought to be hiding in certain magnetic materials but had not been conclusively seen in nature before.

The observation of one of their most interesting and fascinating properties of electron splitting in real materials is really important because the resulting Majorana fermions could make quantum computers far faster than conventional computers and would be able to perform calculations that could not be done otherwise.

The physicists involved in the research measured the first signatures of Majorana fermions in a two dimensional material with a structure similar to graphene. The results obtained after their experiment accurately matched with one of the main theoretical models for a quantum spin liquid known as a Kitaev model. Dr Johannes Knolle of Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory, one of the paper’s co-authors said: “This is a new quantum state of matter which has been predicted but hasn’t been seen before.”

This is to be noted that in a typical magnetic material, the electrons each behave like tiny bar magnets and when this material is cooled to a low enough temperature, the magnets automatically order themselves in a way that all the north magnetic poles point in the same direction.

But if it is a material containing a spin liquid state, even if the material is cooled to absolute zero, the bar magnets would not align and instead form a haphazard structure caused by quantum fluctuations. Paper co-author Dr Dmitry Kovrizhin said: “It’s an important step for our understanding of quantum matter,’ said Kovrizhin. ‘It’s fun to have another new quantum state that we’ve never seen before – it presents us with new possibilities to try new things.”

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Author: Technology and Beyond