Ordinary matter, when cooled, transitions from a gas into a liquid. Cool it further still, and it freezes into a solid.

A new study reveals that highly disordered indium oxide superconductors undergo a first-order quantum phase transition — a sudden shift from a superconducting to an insulating state. This finding is ...

Charge density waves (CDWs) are ordered, crystal-like patterns in the arrangement of electrons that spontaneously form inside ...

Quantum phase transitions and topological phases constitute a vibrant domain within condensed matter physics. Unlike classical transitions driven by thermal fluctuations, quantum phase transitions ...

This image depicts the ultracold atomic quantum simulator. The red and blue balls represent the fermionic atoms with up and down spins, respectively, arranged in a staggered pattern in 3D space, ...

The melting of materials seems like a simple phenomenon. However, when their thickness is reduced to just a few atoms, established rules waver. In this two-dimensional mode, new states emerge ...

After decades of looking, researchers have seen a string of atoms go through a 1D phase change so elusive that it could only happen inside a quantum simulator. “One motivation [for our experiment] is ...

Collective models have long provided an essential framework for understanding the behaviour of atomic nuclei by treating them as systems of interacting particles that can exhibit coherent, macroscopic ...

Princeton physicists have discovered an abrupt change in quantum behavior while experimenting with a three-atom-thin insulator that can be easily switched into a superconductor. The research promises ...

The movement of waves, patterns that carry sound, light or heat, through materials has been widely studied by physicists, as ...

Both a wildfire and activity of digital “neurons” exhibit a phase transition from an active to an absorbing phase. Once a system reaches an absorbing phase, it cannot escape from it without outside ...