The Music of the Quantum

Quantum Criticality

Tuning a material using pressure, or magnetic fields, past a quantum critical point has been compared to passing through the event horizon into a "black hole", for no information about the microscopic origins of the material remains in universal quantum critical matter. Quantum critical matter is thought by many to be an important starting point for the design of 21st century materials,such as high temperature superconductors. Phase transitions are ubiquitous: from the crystallization of water into snowflakes, the pairing of electrons in superconductors, to the very formation of the early Universe; all involve phase transitions. Research into condensed matter over the past decade has revealed a new kind of phase transition which takes place at absolute zero, driven by the quantum fluctuations associated with Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.