In a quiet corner of low-temperature physics, researchers have stumbled on a phase of matter that seems to break one of the field’s unwritten rules: it works without well-defined particles. Instead of ...

The melting of materials seems like a simple phenomenon. However, when their thickness is reduced to just a few atoms, established rules waver. In this two-dimensional mode, new states emerge ...

Researchers report a field-tuned quantum phase transition in a disordered iron-based alloy family, TiFexCu2x−1Sb. Thermodynamic and transport measurements reveal a quantum critical point near 0.13 ...

Physicists have created the first two-dimensional version of the Bose glass, a novel phase of matter that challenges statistical mechanics. Physicists from the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge have ...

Quantum phase transitions and topological phases constitute a vibrant domain within condensed matter physics. Unlike classical transitions driven by thermal fluctuations, quantum phase transitions ...

Quantum phase transitions (QPTs) represent fundamental shifts in the ground state properties of a system driven by quantum fluctuations rather than thermal effects. The quantum Rabi model, which ...

After decades of looking, researchers have seen a string of atoms go through a 1D phase change so elusive that it could only happen inside a quantum simulator. “One motivation [for our experiment] is ...

Princeton physicists have discovered an abrupt change in quantum behavior while experimenting with a three-atom-thin insulator that can be easily switched into a superconductor. The research promises ...

Both a wildfire and activity of digital “neurons” exhibit a phase transition from an active to an absorbing phase. Once a system reaches an absorbing phase, it cannot escape from it without outside ...

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