This ‘strange metal’ does not conform to conventional physical rules, scientists say.
New research excites scientists. Photo: Liquid Metal Drops
A new study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday (January 12) is titled “Signs of a Strange Metal in a Bosonic System.” Scientists have discovered a type of metal never seen before, whose charge is not carried by electrons as usual, but by Cooper pairs.
Cooper pairs are bosons—a type of subatomic particle. Electrons, on the other hand, are fermions, a different class of particles.
Jim Valles, a physics professor at Brown University and the author of the new study, stated, “We have two fundamentally different types of particles; this is truly a mystery. Any theory we have does not fit. We need to investigate further.”
This new research may help resolve a mystery that has puzzled scientists for nearly three decades since the discovery of cuprates—a type of superconductor that tends to behave differently from other metals.
These “strange materials” appear not to exhibit characteristics similar to other metals when heated. Typically, the strength of metals increases until it stabilizes. However, cuprates do not follow these rules, and scientists are still trying to determine why.
Valles mentioned, “To find answers, similar mathematical methods used to study black holes have been applied.”
To gain a better understanding of the “strange metal,” scientists used cuprates with small holes to create Cooper pairs, cooled them down, and observed changes in their electrical conductivity. Ultimately, they found that it behaves in ways similar to strange fermionic metals—however, this still does not reveal much.
Valles explained, “Providing an explanation for what we observe in strange metals is not easy at all. Our work shows that if you intend to model charge transport in strange metals, that model must apply to both fermions and bosons—despite these particle types fundamentally following different rules.”
