Just yesterday it was discovereda new state of matter: the spun quantum fluid. Before someone gets scared, we will explain in a very simple way what it is and what it can do for us.
Before starting it is advisable to have a notion of what espn is, but it will not be essential. The first thing we must understand is that this new quantum liquid it is not a liquid as we know itIn the same way that a black hole is nothing like the holes moths make in wood. It is one of these cases in which physicists use everyday words to describe strange phenomena by making them closer to the public.
This does not mean that it is a lie, but that the meaning of liquid in this case is more poetic than when we say that water is a liquid. Once this is understood, we will move on to the denser part of the explanation in which we will understand why it is considered that the quantum liquid of spun has been given this name and why it is considered a new state of matter, as for example are the superfluids. Of course, we will not finish the article without mentioning the future applications of this state.
Why is it called spun quantum fluid if it is solid?
The difference between a solid and a liquid is in the way the one that the volumes are organized inside. While in a solid these remain fixed at a point (or vibrate around it), in the solid the atoms move disorderly with respect to each other giving them the ability to change shape depending on the container where they are. In other words, the difference between liquids and solids is that in solids the atoms are fixed and in liquids they move, said wrong and fast. Now we go with the quantum liquids of espn.
This state of matter can only be achieved at very low temperatures, bordering on absolute zero. At this temperature the materials capable of reaching this phase of Quantum liquid spun makes many degrees that are solid, they have their volumes still; however their spins are not. The espn quickly can be understood as an arrow with a fixed length that can point in any direction until we look, like Schrdinger’s cat. And this is where the liquid part is, in the way that the intrinsic magnetic moment of the electrons reacts.
Well, we haven’t said it, but the magnetic moment is closely related to the spin (hence the name) and can be understood in a similar way. This means that when we measure the magnetic moment of a tome we can find it in any direction, but if we look at many of them, we will see that almost all of them point in the same direction. This is what generates the magnets (which has this behavior at room temperature) and what does NOT happen in a spun quantum liquid. In this state, the magnetic moments continue being scrambled and there is no preferred direction.
The key to spun quantum fluid is in the magnetic moments
It may not seem like a very strange thing, but the implications this has go far beyond what we imagine. For starters, a spun liquid fluid behaves like a quantum entwined soup (yes, it is the official term that they have used in the press release) in which all kinds of strange phenomena occur, as we will see below. Before continuing, it is convenient to remember again that the term liquid refers to this soup of messy little magnets, referring to the disorder that the atoms of a liquid have compared to a solid.
One of the effects that occur in these spun quantum fluids is the effective division of electrons. This means that the electron stops behaving as a single particle and divides into several particles that can be understood as entities. different, but that maintain a link special, they are quantitatively intertwined. This is the basis of the most important properties and applications of these spun quantum fluids, which could not take place if they were not 2D materials (In 3D the electron is indivisible, but in 2D not so much).
And what is the use of quantum spun liquid?
The application that all of us could have come up with right now is to use these two-dimensional spun quantum liquids to study the properties of these divided but entangled electrons, and it is one of the main applications, without a doubt. These and other quasparticles that can be described as Majorana fermions, can be studied better than ever in these systems and we can learn a great deal from them, but it is not all that these quantum spun liquids have to offer us.
The other application that this new state of matter has is to function as means of development of quantum computers. This is because its properties, which only occur in 2D and within the spun quantum fluids, allow Marjoram fermions to remain isolated and could even serve as an insulator to maintain quantum systems (like computers) isolated from the outside world. And is that this interaction with the outside world is one of the biggest problems that exist when you want to build a quantum computer big or powerful enough.
So, as we have seen, it is not so difficult to understand these quantum spun liquids In a basic way, and its applications go far beyond pure research. Who knows if tomorrow this new state of matter is what is under our table, protecting our precious quantum computer!
Bonus: I remain steadfast in my bid for the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics to go to LIGO and his discovery of gravitational waves, but this discovery is a good candidate to steal the award.
