Strangeness is the hallmark of strange metals, which have captured the attention of physicists around the world. These metals behave in unusual ways, operating outside the normal rules of electricity. Physicists are particularly interested in strange metals because of their high conductivity at extremely cold temperatures, making them potential superconductors for quantum computing.
The latest research on strange metals has revealed unusual fluctuations in their electrical charge, leading to new insights into their inner machinery. While scientists have made significant strides in understanding the strange behavior of these metals, many questions remain unanswered. However, as the research continues, it is becoming increasingly clear that strange metals could play a pivotal role in the development of next-generation electronic devices and even revolutionize the field of electronics as we know it.
Yashar Komijani, an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati, has contributed to an international experiment exploring the mysteries of strange metals. Strange metals are of interest to a wide range of physicists studying everything from particle physics to quantum mechanics because of their oddly high conductivity, which gives them potential as superconductors for quantum computing. In a recent study published in the journal Science, physicists in a lab in Hyogo, Japan, fired radioactive gamma rays at a strange metal made from an alloy of ytterbium to observe its unusual electrical behavior. The experiment revealed unusual fluctuations in the strange metal’s electrical charge, providing new insights into the inner machinery of the strange metal.
According to Komijani, a sea of electrons moves in the background on a lattice of ions in a metal. However, with quantum mechanics, the lattice of ions behaves as if they are in a vacuum. Komijani has been exploring the mysteries of strange metals in relation to quantum mechanics for years. He said, “You can put something in a black box and I can tell you a lot about what’s inside it without even looking at it just by measuring things like resistivity, heat capacity and conductivity. But when it comes to strange metals, I have no idea why they are showing the behavior they do. The mystery is what is happening inside this strange system. That is the question.”
The Japan experiment was groundbreaking in part because of the way that researchers created the gamma particles using a particle accelerator called a synchrotron. In Japan, they use a synchrotron like they have at CERN that accelerates a proton and smashes it into a wall and it emits a gamma ray. So they have an on-demand source of gamma rays without using radioactive material. Researchers used spectroscopy to study the effects of gamma rays on the strange metal. They also examined the speed of the metal’s electrical charge fluctuations, which take just a nanosecond—a billionth of a second.
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