Physicists create antiferromagnet that may help them better understand superconductors
From the moment when physicists discovered superconductors — materials that conduct electricity without resistance at extremely low temperatures — they wondered whether they might be able to develop materials that exhibit the same properties at warmer temperatures. The key to doing so, a group of Harvard scientists say, may lie in another exotic material known as an antiferromagnet. Led by physics professor Markus Greiner, a team of physicists has taken a crucial step toward understanding those materials by creating a quantum antiferromagnet from an ultracold gas of hundreds of lithium atoms. The work is described in a May 25 paper published in the journal Nature. “We have created a model system for real materials … and now, for the first time, we can study this model system in a regime where classical computers get to their limit,” Greiner said. “Now, we can poke and prod our antiferromagnet. It’s a beautifully tunable system, and...