Researchers from Brookhaven National Laboratory in the United States have discovered an exotic quantum phase in a new study states of matter, called «half-ice, half-fire».
It is noted that the corresponding phase of the quantum state was found in ferromagnets with ordered (cold) and disordered (hot) electron spins
a fundamental characteristic of a particle (e.g., an atomic nucleus or elementary particle) that is in some ways analogous to the «proper momentum of the particle». Spin is a quantum property of particles and has no analogues in classical physics. While the classical momentum arises from the rotation of a massive body with finite dimensions, spin is inherent even in particles that are currently considered point-like, and is not associated with any rotation of masses inside such a particle.. Traditional conventional ideas allow existence of matter in solid, liquid, gaseous, and plasma states. However, in quantum physics, the states of magnetic materials can be very exotic.
Physicists Weigo Yin and Alexei Tsvelik have discovered a new quantum phase of the one-dimensional ferromagnet Sr3CuIrO6, which is a compound of strontium, copper, iridium, and oxygen. In the «semi-ice, semi-fire» state, the ordered electron spins in the atom are in the «cold» state and do not move, while the rest of the spins are in the so-called «chaotic, hot» state.
The research began back in 2012, when the scientists published two scientific articles based on the results of theoretical and experimental studies of the properties of Sr3CuIrO6 ferromagnet. In 2016, Yin and Zwelik studied the phase states of the Sr3CuIrO6 ferromagnet and discovered the «semi-fire, semi-ice» phase. In this state, which is induced by a critical external magnetic field, the «hot» spins on the copper nodes are completely chaotic on the atomic lattice and have smaller magnetic moments, while the «cold» spins on the iridium nodes are completely ordered and have larger magnetic moments.
«But despite our extensive research, we still didn’t know how to use this state, especially because it has been well known for about a century that the one-dimensional Ising model, the well-established mathematical model of ferromagnetism that produces a half-fire, half-ice state, does not contain a phase transition at a finite temperature. We were missing the part of the puzzle», — Weigo Yin notes.
However, the researchers managed to find the pieces of the puzzle they need and prove that the phase transition, which should be impossible according to the Ising model, is still possible. This was achieved through an ultra-narrow phase transition with a fixed final temperature.
In this phase, the «cold» and «hot» spins are reversed. The team identified an extremely narrow temperature range in which there is a transition between phases, which is of great importance for many industries. Ultra-sharp phase switching with a gigantic change in magnetic entropy can be used to improve cryogenic technologies, as well as as a basis for a new type of qubit in quantum computers.
«In the future, we are going to study this phenomenon in systems with quantum spins and additional degrees of freedom in lattices and orbital charges. The door to new possibilities is now wide open. It may even be possible to use the phases themselves as bits in a new approach to storing information in quantum computers», — Weigo Yin suggests.
The results of the study are published in the journal Physical Review Letters
Source: SciTechDaily
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