ZAP // Dall-E-2
Portuguese discovery shows predictability in electricity in quantum materials. It can impact cutting-edge technologies.
The description is from researcher José Manuel Carmelo: let’s imagine a crowd leaving a stadium – but, instead of dispersing in a chaotic way, people advance slowly, following implicit rules.
This is a metaphor that describes the movement of electricity in certain quantum materials – which ultimately moves more predictable than was thought.
The researcher from the School of Sciences at the University of Minho (ECUM) explains: “We are studying charge transport at finite temperatures in the so-called Hubbard model in one dimension, which describes certain materials formed by loosely coupled molecular chains and systems of supercold atoms that are produced artificially.”
O contradicts a superdiffusion presented in previous studies: electricity spreads almost instantly.
“The diffusion constant characterizes charge transport. If it is infinite, the transport is said to be superdiffusive. Until now it was considered that this charge diffusion constant was infinite, but I show that it is finite”, recalls José Manuel Carmelo.
But the investigator stops a error in previous interpretations: a property of the system that had not been considered – namely, a symmetry that prevents the extremely rapid movement of electricity.
Previous studies “did not take into account a translational symmetry U(1) of the model associated with the opening of an energy gap that does not allow superdiffusive transport”.
In other words, in practice, the Electricity moves in a more predictable and controlled way than previously thought.
This study provides new information about how electricity or ultracold atoms (with temperatures close to absolute zero) behave in experimental systems.
And the study may have impact on cutting-edge technologies; helps to better understand the behavior of electricity at a microscopic level – something essential for developing key factors for developing various technologies.
