'Smoking gun' may help solve mystery of high-temperature superconductivity - Phys.org

Superconductivity has many important practical applications, including creating powerful magnets used in high-resolution medical scans, transporting electricity efficiently, and building ultra-sensitive measuring devices. Until now, understanding exactly what lay behind this unique phenomenon at high temperatures has eluded scientists over many decades. But pioneering research , led by physicists at the University of Bristol and published this week in the journal Nature Physics, has identified the vital mechanism which explains how electrons in these copper-oxide high-temperature superconductors combine to transmit power with no loss of energy – the 'superconductive' state of infinite electrical conduction. Study co-lead author Nigel Hussey , Professor of Physics at the University of Bristol, said: "Superconductivity is a remarkable, almost magical, phenomenon which has long fascinated famous physicists and resulted in various breakthroughs recognised with Nobel Prizes over the decades. "The processes which facilitate higher temperature superconductivity, however, have remained a source of mystery and fascination.

A pulse of light enabled researchers to observe a competition between superconductivity and a competing state of matter, revealing a key limitation to achieving higher-temperature superconductivity. The collaboration, including scientists at the Flatiron Institute and the Institut national de la recherche scientifique, focused on ‘cuprate’ materials as they transitioned from superconducting to the ‘pseudogap’ state. This work challenges the assumption that superconductivity in these materials relies on a pre-existing pseudogap phase, according to study co-author Olivier Gingras, an associate research scientist at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Quantum Physics. “We’re really showing that these states are competing,” he says.

New work helps show why the dream of high-temperature superconductivity has been so hard to realize: a quantum brawl between superconductivity and a competing state of matter. The finding resulted from a collaboration that included theorists with the Simons Foundation's Flatiron Institute in New York City and experimentalists at Quebec's Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS). The researchers investigated a copper alloy called a 'cuprate' as it transitioned from the superconducting state to an enigmatic neighboring state of matter called the 'pseudogap.' Using laser pulses and computer simulations, they were able to understand the behavior of electrons inside the cuprate. In a paper published October 20 in Nature Physics , the team shows how the two states — superconductivity and the pseudogap — wrestle for dominance. That finding challenges the idea that superconductivity in cuprates merely builds upon a pre-existing pseudogap phase. "We're really showing that these states are competing," says study co-author Olivier Gingras , an associate research scientist at the Flatiron Institute's Center for Computational Quantum Physics (CCQ).

A research group led by scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has found compelling evidence of pair-density waves on the surface of uranium ditelluride. These structures persisted at temperatures higher than the superconducting transition temperature, ScienceAlert reports. The results were published in the journal PNAS. Electron pairs form patternsIn the superconducting state, electrons can form Cooper pairs and move through a material without electrical resistance or energy loss through heating. The existence of pair-density waves, or PDWs, was theoretically predicted as early as 2007. In this state, Cooper pairs form spatially repeating patterns resembling waves in sand. Uranium ditelluride enters a superconducting state at temperatures below approximately 2.1 kelvin, or about minus 271 degrees Celsius. The material also interests physicists as a possible rare spin-triplet superconductor: in such a system, paired electrons also have a small magnetic orientation. More current news is available on the UA. News Telegram channel Telegram. Observations of magnetic field and temperatureSigns of PDW had previously been recorded in uranium ditelluride.

For scientists studying the ocean, finding the right data can sometimes be as challenging as figuring out what to do with it. Want to know seafloor depth, the location of underwater mountains or sea surface temperatures? The information exists, but it can take considerable time and computer coding to pull it together from different sources and get it into the proper format.

Scientists have long been interested in cellular nanodiscs, tiny particles made from natural cell membranes that mimic many of the functions of living cells. While previous studies demonstrated the therapeutic potential of nanodiscs for drug delivery, detoxification and vaccines, one fundamental question remained unanswered: How does size influence how well they work?