We can’t stir ordinary solids, but one research team now claims to have stirred an extraordinary quantum “supersolid”, generating tiny vortices
Supersolids, created using lasers, have some unusual properties Chris Rogers/Getty Images heat storage tank
Supersolids, created using lasers, have some unusual properties
Some solids can be stirred. Researchers have shown that a bizarre quantum state of matter that is both a solid and a frictionless fluid at the same time can be agitated, apparently creating a series of tiny vortices inside the material. The experiment is evidence of the progress being made in understanding the strange properties of so-called “supersolids”.
“I’ve never done, in all my life, such a challenging experiment,” says Francesca Ferlaino at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. In 2022,…
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