Indian scientists have discovered a new ‘exotic and strange’ state of materials that alters their physical properties in presence of an electromagnetic field, leading to better quantum technologies, the Ministry of Science and Technology said on Tuesday.
The scientists have shown that in an external electromagnetic field, geometric properties of a crystalline solid with lattices arranged in a one-dimensional periodic manner can display phase transitions, thereby altering its physical properties.
“The 2016 Nobel Prize for physics was awarded to the theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter, which have played a significant role in the modern understanding of materials and their applications,” the Ministry said.
Topology is concerned with the properties of a geometric object preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching and twisting.
Understanding various phases and phase transitions is of central…
