2023-04-21 11:45:58
Supersolids are a relatively new and exciting field of research. They exhibit solid and superfluid properties simultaneously.
In 2019, three research groups succeeded in demonstrating this state beyond doubt in ultracold quantum gases for the first time, including the research group led by Francesca Ferlaino from the University of Innsbruck in Austria.
In 2021, Ferlaino’s team studied in detail the life cycle of supersolid states in a dipolar gas of dysprosium atoms. She and her colleagues observed something unexpected: “Our data suggested that an increase in temperature favors the formation of supersolid structures,” says Claudia Politi, from Ferlaino’s team. “This surprising behavior was a major boost to the theory, which until then had paid little attention to thermal fluctuations in this context.”
The Innsbruck scientists joined forces with the team of Thomas Pohl from Aarhus University in Denmark and together they have developed a theoretical model that can explain the experimental results and supports the thesis that heating a quantum liquid can lead to the formation of a quantum crystal. The theoretical model shows that as the temperature increases, these structures can form more easily.
When a quantum liquid is heated, crystalline structures can appear. (Image: Aarhus University)
Juan Sánchez-Baena, from the University of Aarhus and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), and Fabian Maucher, from the University of Aarhus and the University of the Balearic Islands in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, have also participated in this research. .
The study is titled “Heating a quantum dipolar fluid into a solid”. And it has been published in the academic journal Nature Communications. (Fountain: NCYT de Amazings)
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