Even within the quantum world i strange metals they are very strange, in fact. This state of matter is related to high-temperature superconductors and has surprising connections with the properties of black holes.

The electrons that flow inside a strange metal they dissipate energy at the maximum speed allowed by the laws of quantum mechanics, and their electrical resistance, unlike an ordinary metal, is directly proportional to their temperature.

Finding a model that describes the behaviour of strange metals is one of the biggest challenges of the physics of condensed matter. Using computational techniques, a team of researchers from the Flatiron Institute in New York City and Cornell University solved the first theoretical model for this new state of matter.

The fact that we call them strange metals should make us understand how much we understand about their behaviour, tells Olivier Parcollet, a researcher at the Flatiron Institute and co-author of the study. Strange metals share some properties with black holes and open new research directions in theoretical physics.

For quantum mechanics, the electrical resistance it is the product of the interactions of electrons with other electrons and with the impurities of metals. The greater the average time between two collisions, the lower the resistance of the medium. For an ordinary metal, the resistance increases with temperature but following a complex mathematical function, but in some particular cases (such as superconductors heated just above the superconductivity threshold) this can be simplified considerably. For the strange metals, the equation is extremely trivial: a direct proportionality between resistance and temperature. The proportionality constant depends on some fundamental constants: the Planck constant and the Boltzmann constant, for this reason, they are also called Planckian metals .

The models that describe these materials have existed for decades, but their resolution is far from obvious. The entanglement between electrons it prevents them from being treated as individual bodies and the huge number of particles makes the whole complex. In strange metals, entanglement between over a billion electrons has been achieved.

Peter Cha and Olivier Parcollets team used sophisticated computational methods to obtain numerical solutions for one of the models that describe these materials. The results tell that the strange metals I am a new state of matter halfwaybetween Motts insulating spin glasses and Fermi liquids.

We found an entire region in the phase space showing Planckian behaviour that does not belong to any of the previously known classes, explains Eun-Ah Kim, professor of Cornell University. This quantum state isnt completely blocked but its not completely free either. Its metallic, but it doesnt want to be and pushes the chaos levels to the maximum expected by quantum mechanics.

This new work will help physicists better understand the physics of high-temperature superconductors. The work, as we said earlier, has unexpected connections with astrophysics: also black holes presented properties that depend on the temperature and constants of Planck and Boltzmann, such as the oscillation time after the fusion between two black holes.

The fact that there are similar properties on a scale ranging from strange metals to black holes is extremely fascinating, Parcollet says.

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Solved the mystery of strange metals, a new state of matter - InTallaght