Santos is a theorist who specializes in condensed matter physics. He studies the interactions of quantum products– small things such as photons, atoms, and electrons– that dont behave according to the laws of classical physics.
Superconductivity, or the ability of particular materials to perform electrical energy without energy loss when cooled to a super-low temperature level, is one example of appealing quantum habits. When Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes revealed that mercury lost its electrical resistance when cooled to 4 Kelvin or minus 371 degrees Fahrenheit, the phenomenon was discovered in 1911. Thats about the temperature of Uranus, the coldest world in the planetary system.
It took researchers until 1957 to come up with a description for how and why superconductivity takes place. At low temperature levels, however, electrons can organize into a brand-new state of matter.
Luiz Santos, assistant professor of physics at Emory University, is the senior author of the research study. Credit: Emory University.
” They form pairs that are bound together into a collective state that behaves like a single entity,” Santos explains. “You can think about them like soldiers in an army. If they are relocating seclusion they are simpler to deflect. When they are marching together in lockstep its much harder to destabilize them. This cumulative state carries current in a robust way.”
Superconductivity holds huge potential. In theory, it could enable electric present to move through wires without heating them up or losing energy. These wires could then carry far more electrical power, far more effectively.
” One of the holy grails of physics is room-temperature superconductivity that is useful enough for everyday-living applications,” Santos states. “That development might alter the shape of civilization.”
Numerous physicists and engineers are dealing with this frontline to transform how electrical energy gets transferred.
Superconductivity has actually already discovered applications. A handful of magnetic levitation trains are now running in the world, built on superconducting magnets that are 10 times stronger than common electromagnets.
The Large Hadron Collider, a particle accelerator that scientists are using to look into the essential structure of the universe, is another example of innovation that runs through superconductivity.
Superconductivity continues to be discovered in more products, consisting of lots of that are superconductive at higher temperature levels.
One focus of Santos research study is how interactions in between electrons can cause forms of superconductivity that can not be explained by the 1957 description of superconductivity. An example of this so-called unique phenomenon is oscillating superconductivity, when the paired electrons dance in waves, altering amplitude.
In an unassociated project, Santos asked Castro to investigate particular homes of Van Hove singularities, structures where lots of electronic states become close in energy. Castros task revealed that the singularities appeared to have the ideal kind of physics to seed oscillating superconductivity.
That sparked Santos and his collaborators to dig deeper. They uncovered a system that would allow these dancing-wave states of superconductivity to occur from Van Hove singularities.
” As theoretical physicists, we want to have the ability to anticipate and categorize behavior to comprehend how nature works,” Santos states. “Then we can start to ask concerns with technological importance.”
Some high-temperature superconductors– which work at temperatures about three times as cold as a household freezer– have this dancing-wave habits. The discovery of how this habits can emerge from Van Hove singularities offers a structure for experimentalists to check out the world of possibilities it provides.
” I doubt that Kamerlingh Onnes was considering levitation or particle accelerators when he discovered superconductivity,” Santos states. “But everything we discover the world has potential applications.”
Reference: “Emergence of the Chern Supermetal and Pair-Density Wave through Higher-Order Van Hove Singularities in the Haldane-Hubbard Model” by Pedro Castro, Daniel Shaffer, Yi-Ming Wu and Luiz H. Santos, 11 July 2023, Physical Review Letters.DOI: 10.1103/ PhysRevLett.131.026601.
The work was funded by the U.S. Department of Energys Office of Basic Energy Sciences.
Superconductivity, or the capability of particular materials to perform electricity without energy loss when cooled to a super-low temperature, is one example of interesting quantum behavior. It took scientists till 1957 to come up with a description for how and why superconductivity occurs.” They form sets that are bound together into a collective state that acts like a single entity,” Santos describes. Superconductivity holds big capacity. Superconductivity has actually already found applications.
Physicists identified a system behind oscillating superconductivity, called pair-density waves, through structures known as Van Hove singularities. This discovery uses a much deeper understanding of unconventional superconductive states discovered in specific products, including high-temperature superconductors.
Scientist released a brand-new theoretical framework.
Physicists have actually pinpointed a mechanism accountable for the production of oscillating superconductivity, called pair-density waves. The findings, which shed light on an irregular high-temperature superconductive state observed in specific materials like high-temperature superconductors, were released in Physical Review Letters.
” We discovered that structures referred to as Van Hove singularities can produce modulating, oscillating states of superconductivity,” states Luiz Santos, assistant professor of physics at Emory University and senior author of the study. “Our work provides a brand-new theoretical structure for comprehending the emergence of this habits, a phenomenon that is not well understood.”
The first author of the study is Pedro Castro, an Emory physics college student. Co-authors include Daniel Shaffer, a postdoctoral fellow in the Santos group, and Yi-Ming Wu from Stanford University