Penetrating the quantum nature of magnetism
Monday, June 17, 2013 - 08:00
in Physics & Chemistry
Antiferromagnets are materials that lose their apparent magnetic properties when cooled down close to absolute zero temperature. Different to conventional magnets, which can be described with classical physics even at the atomic level, antiferromagnets such as copper sulfate are quantum systems where electrons behave in a complex cooperative manner. They belong to the field of quantum many-body physics, a branch of science that studies the collective behavior of vast assemblies of interacting particles. Thus far, only very few exact solutions to quantum many-body problems are known and even fewer have been realized experimentally.