Condensed matter physics

Theorists are in a frenzy over “fractons,” bizarre, but potentially useful, hypothetical particles that can only move in combination with one another.

Superconductivity has been discovered in graphene devices without any twists, suggesting the form of superconductivity in the material might be mundane after all.

The zoo of spontaneously emerging particlelike entities known as quasiparticles has grown quickly and become more and more exotic. Here are a few of the most curious and potentially useful examples.

An unexpected superconductor was beginning to look like a fluke, but a new theory and a second discovery have revealed that emergent quasiparticles may be behind the effect.

In 2020, researchers reported that they had created a room-temperature superconductor. That paper has now been retracted.

Researchers have shown how to effectively transform one material into another using a finely shaped laser pulse.

Renormalization has become perhaps the single most important advance in theoretical physics in 50 years.

Push or crush a new class of materials, and they’ll undergo record-breaking temperature changes.

At the molecular level, glass looks like a liquid. But an artificial neural network has picked up on hidden structure in its molecules that may explain why glass is rigid like a solid.