As a layperson I go into this thinking that it sounds like "scientists make matter from light" but after reading it seems more like "scientists make fancy electric field with a laser".
I guess "solid" has a technical definition that allows for this sort of interesting interpretation.
The problem is that the usual definition of "solid" requires a classical understanding of what it means for "a thing to be in a place". With quantum mechanics, places get blurred, so you can have things remain in a rigid structure and flow, simultaneously.
So you read it correctly: scientists made a fancy electric field with a laser.
"At the mean field level, supersolidity can be interpreted as two-mode condensation; after condensation in the first, a second mode become senergetically available by tuning of interactions or an external electromagnetic field and can then be dynamically populated."
This is really at the boundaries of my comprehension of physics but it’s a remarkable achievement of Italy, Europe and international Academic institutions at large - we need them all!!!
> the first experimental evidence of a supersolid phase in a driven-dissipative, non-equilibrium system using exciton-polaritons in a photonic crystal waveguide.
This is just messing with us right? Star trek level technobabble?
Just kidding, seems an exciting result, even if it flies way over my head.
- Supersolid: it's a state of matter when a system is both organised like a solid but presents superfluid-like flow without viscosity.
- Driven-dissipative: it's a qualifier for systems which are dissipative (excitations of the systems dissipate energy as heat) and driven by external fields (in this case strong electromagnetic fields are keeping the supersolid in shape). In physics, "driven" usually refers to an external influx of energy or force kept on the system.
- non-equilibrium system is what we call systems where the physics cannot be fully described by a statistical analysis of the whole over long times. These systems have transitory behaviours which are often complex before they return to equilibrium (unless they are driven away from it).
Exciton-polariton: excitons and polaritons are what we call quasiparticles. They're not particles in the sense of an electron or photon, but instead they are excitations of the collective system which look like particles. Kind of like how waves on the ocean aren't one water molecule, but a bunch of them. An exciton has no charge (it's essentially an electron and a missing electron stuck together). When an exciton couples to electromagnetic waves (photons), it can make a special type of polariton (another quasiparticle) which we call an exciton-polariton.
> a system is both organised like a solid but presents superfluid-like flow without viscosity
This is hard for me to grasp. For example, if it bumps hard into a hard solid surface, does it shear like, say, bent metal? Or is it itself 'hard' / rigid - if that is a reasonable descriptor for something at such small scales - itself, and - despite being able to flow, with no friction, smoothly - still remain 'locked in shape' at a structural level? My real question I guess is how does a collision work here?
Which also means that nobody is making a solid object from photons, it's all "behaves like a solid would if you look at our system a certain way". Right?
---
Also - I don't see how the phrases "behaves like a solid" and "presents flow" can agree. Isn't the whole point of a solid that it _doesn't_ flow?
Although currently still in the experimental verification stage, the use of photons to create and control supersolids has great potential for exploring breakthrough levels of quantum physics phenomena and new materials science.
Readit News
I guess "solid" has a technical definition that allows for this sort of interesting interpretation.
So you read it correctly: scientists made a fancy electric field with a laser.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.02373
"At the mean field level, supersolidity can be interpreted as two-mode condensation; after condensation in the first, a second mode become senergetically available by tuning of interactions or an external electromagnetic field and can then be dynamically populated."
Deleted Comment
This is just messing with us right? Star trek level technobabble?
Just kidding, seems an exciting result, even if it flies way over my head.
- Supersolid: it's a state of matter when a system is both organised like a solid but presents superfluid-like flow without viscosity.
- Driven-dissipative: it's a qualifier for systems which are dissipative (excitations of the systems dissipate energy as heat) and driven by external fields (in this case strong electromagnetic fields are keeping the supersolid in shape). In physics, "driven" usually refers to an external influx of energy or force kept on the system.
- non-equilibrium system is what we call systems where the physics cannot be fully described by a statistical analysis of the whole over long times. These systems have transitory behaviours which are often complex before they return to equilibrium (unless they are driven away from it).
Exciton-polariton: excitons and polaritons are what we call quasiparticles. They're not particles in the sense of an electron or photon, but instead they are excitations of the collective system which look like particles. Kind of like how waves on the ocean aren't one water molecule, but a bunch of them. An exciton has no charge (it's essentially an electron and a missing electron stuck together). When an exciton couples to electromagnetic waves (photons), it can make a special type of polariton (another quasiparticle) which we call an exciton-polariton.
- Photonic = made of photons
This is hard for me to grasp. For example, if it bumps hard into a hard solid surface, does it shear like, say, bent metal? Or is it itself 'hard' / rigid - if that is a reasonable descriptor for something at such small scales - itself, and - despite being able to flow, with no friction, smoothly - still remain 'locked in shape' at a structural level? My real question I guess is how does a collision work here?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_hole
but it's more like a way of describing a system.
Which also means that nobody is making a solid object from photons, it's all "behaves like a solid would if you look at our system a certain way". Right?
---
Also - I don't see how the phrases "behaves like a solid" and "presents flow" can agree. Isn't the whole point of a solid that it _doesn't_ flow?
Dead Comment