new state of matter

Conventional matter exists in three familiar forms—solid, liquid and gas. But under special circumstances, quantum theory predicts exotic states of matter, such as superconductors in which electrons flow with no resistance and Bose-Einstein condensates in which atoms move as a collective whole. Now, in the Dec. 15 issue of the journal Science, three Stanford physicists theorize a new state of matter that may pave the way for electronic devices that dissipate less energy and generate less heat."Searching for new states of matter has become the holy grail of condensed matter physics, just as the quest for new elements dominated chemistry and the pursuit of new subatomic particles dominates particle physics," says physics Professor Shoucheng Zhang, who also holds courtesy appointments in the Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering departments. With graduate student Taylor Hughes and former graduate student and current Princeton University postdoctoral fellow Andrei Bernevig, Zhang proposed the existence of the so-called "quantum spin Hall state," which has extraordinary properties. The U.S. Department of Energy and National Science Foundation funded their work.