Caltech announces discovery in fundamental physics. - Polidicks

[QUOTE]A branch of fundamental physics research, the study of so-called correlated electrons, focuses on interactions between the electrons in metals. The key to understanding these interactions and the unique properties they produce—information that could lead to the development of novel materials and technologies—is to experimentally verify their presence and physically probe the interactions at microscopic scales. To this end, Caltech's Thomas F. Rosenbaum and colleagues at the University of Chicago and the Argonne National Laboratory recently used a synchrotron X-ray source to investigate the existence of instabilities in the arrangement of the electrons in metals as a function of both temperature and pressure, and to pinpoint, for the first time, how those instabilities arise. Rosenbaum, professor of physics and holder of the Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair, is the corresponding author on the paper that was published on July 27, 2015, in the journal Nature Physics. "We spent over 10 years developing the instrumentation to perform these studies," says Yejun Feng of Argonne National Laboratory, a coauthor of the paper. "We now have a very unique capability that's due to the long-term relationship between Dr. Rosenbaum and the facilities at the Argonne National Laboratory." In the experiment, the researchers used the X-ray beams to investigate charge-order effects in two metals, chromium and niobium diselenide, at pressures ranging from 0 (a vacuum) to 100 kilobar (100,000 times normal atmospheric pressure) and at temperatures ranging from 3 to 300 K (or -454 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit). Niobium diselenide was selected because it has a high degree of charge order, while chromium, in contrast, has a high degree of spin order. The researchers found that there is a simple correlation between pressure and how the communal electrons organize themselves within the crystal. Materials with completely different types of crystal structures all behave similarly. "These sorts of charge- and spin-order phenomena have been known for a long time, but their underlying mechanisms have not been understood until now," says Rosenbaum. Journal: [url]http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nphys3416[/url] Source: [url]http://phys.org/news/2015-08-caltech-discovery-fundamental-physics.html[/url] [/QUOTE]

Man, must suck when your research is so layman-unfriendly that news outlets just have to call it "a discovery."

Be the patron saint of physics then and explain to us plebeians what basically just happened

I don't understand but i'm hyped.

[quote]Rosenbaum and colleagues point out that there are no immediate practical applications of the results. However, Rosenbaum notes, "This work should have applicability to new materials as well as to the kind of interactions that are useful to create magnetic states that are often the antecedents of superconductors," says Rosenbaum.[/quote] In a nutshell, this discovery is basically a stepping stone towards greater understanding, even if it has no immediate practical significance for the present.

This is the first physics news without word 'quantum' in it.

[QUOTE=Zonesylvania;48423978]In a nutshell, this discovery is basically a stepping stone towards greater understanding, even if it has no immediate practical significance for the present.[/QUOTE] so basically science news in a nutshell

[QUOTE=Zonesylvania;48423978]In a nutshell, this discovery is basically a stepping stone towards greater understanding, even if it has no immediate practical significance for the present.[/QUOTE] If doctoring doesn't work out, you'd make a great politician with that non-answer. :v:

[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;48423599]Man, must suck when your research is so layman-unfriendly that news outlets just have to call it "a discovery."[/QUOTE] Seems like a bit of a trade-off to me, honestly. On one hand, as one of these people working in physics research, you wouldn't gather any real public attention and would spend most if not all of your career working in obscurity, unless you got lucky and discovered something world-changing. The media could typically care less about you, unless you give it something empty to make filler articles out of. The average person wouldn't have a clue about what you study and do, and explaining your job to normal people would probably be tedious as hell. On the other hand though, it's probably better than working in cancer research. It must suck, having the media incorrectly claim you've cured all cancer for the thousandth time for their next sensational story, only to ensure that the common people consider you and your colleagues a massive disappointment when that's inevitably proven to not be the case. As far as scientific fields go, that seems like it'd be the job incarnation of blue balls.

Quick rundown for those who are interested. We know that the nuclei of individual atoms have "clouds," or orbitals, around them, areas where the atom's electrons are likely to be. When metals bond with nonmetals, electrons are transferred from one atom to another, creating an ionic bond. Table salt, for example. When nonmetals bond with nonmetals, they share electrons - forming hybrid orbitals. Table sugar, for instance. When metals bond with metals, however, the result is more confusing. Imagine a tablespoon, now. The atoms in the spoon are bonded to one another, but the electrons of those atoms are dispersed throughout the spoon rather than remaining in explicit, individual orbits. This study seems to indicate that there is a pattern to this behavior, which is related closely to pressure. This makes a lot of sense, given the fact that higher pressures force atoms against one another, restricting the movement of the "free" electrons between them, which aren't really free, given the necessity for charge-mass balance. [editline]11th August 2015[/editline] This is pretty exciting, actually. The unique property of metallic bonding that involves the dispersion of electrons is partly responsible for the conductivity, ductility, and malleability of metals, and hence their usefulness. If we can manipulate these properties by exploiting the apparent pattern discovered by this study... well, that'd have simply tremendous applications.

Solid-state physics makes my head spin. [sp]10 points to whoever gets the pun[/sp]

[QUOTE=Furioso;48434889]Quick rundown for those who are interested. We know that the nuclei of individual atoms have "clouds," or orbitals, around them, areas where the atom's electrons are likely to be. When metals bond with nonmetals, electrons are transferred from one atom to another, creating an ionic bond. Table salt, for example. When nonmetals bond with nonmetals, they share electrons - forming hybrid orbitals. Table sugar, for instance. When metals bond with metals, however, the result is more confusing. Imagine a tablespoon, now. The atoms in the spoon are bonded to one another, but the electrons of those atoms are dispersed throughout the spoon rather than remaining in explicit, individual orbits. This study seems to indicate that there is a pattern to this behavior, which is related closely to pressure. This makes a lot of sense, given the fact that higher pressures force atoms against one another, restricting the movement of the "free" electrons between them, which aren't really free, given the necessity for charge-mass balance. [editline]11th August 2015[/editline] This is pretty exciting, actually. The unique property of metallic bonding that involves the dispersion of electrons is partly responsible for the conductivity, ductility, and malleability of metals, and hence their usefulness. If we can manipulate these properties by exploiting the apparent pattern discovered by this study... well, that'd have simply tremendous applications.[/QUOTE] So in other words, this research into electron behaviour in metallic substances could put us on the road to more efficient electrical wires and circuits? Well, that would indeed have a good impact on our infrastructure.

[QUOTE=ironman17;48436541]So in other words, this research into electron behaviour in metallic substances could put us on the road to more efficient electrical wires and circuits? Well, that would indeed have a good impact on our infrastructure.[/QUOTE] It might not even result in electrical breaktroughs (though the much vaulted room temperature SCs are always interesting) But it could even be interesting in terms of standard engineering. Special designed metals with the right maleabilitly, brittleness, hardness etc.