The ‘atomic Lego set’ revealing electrons as we’ve never seen them before

[superadmin]

• A quantum simulator could open the door to advanced new materials, and better predict the weather, experts say
  
• Researchers say new device allows them to observe electrons in a state of ‘quantum disorder’
  

An international team of scientists have created a device to peer into the melting of electrons – an area of research that they say could lead to the development of new materials and even computers that work like our brains.

Physicists from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Japan have developed a device that used specially structured carbon atoms to observe electrons. As the electrons changed from a crystal state to a liquid state, they discovered an intermediate phase that had never been seen before, according to their report in the journal Nature on Wednesday.

Scientists have long sought to tailor materials at the atomic level to achieve specific properties. But to do that, they first need to understand the complex interaction of electrons in a material – when for example, the electrons start to repel one another once that material is cold enough.

The problem has been almost impossible to solve with conventional computers. Cheng Bin from Nanjing University, the study’s co-lead, said the complexity of the interactions of electrons increases exponentially as the number of electrons increases, so calculating the properties of 100 interacting electrons, for example, would overwhelm today’s fastest computer. Now, however, researchers have a method to observe the properties of 10,000 electrons.

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