Electron behavior in quantum systems revealed by crystal stripes.
Physicists at RIKEN have discovered hidden stripes in a crystal that could help understand the behavior of electrons in certain quantum systems, including high-temperature superconductors. The electrons in most materials interact weakly, but in materials where they interact strongly, they behave as quasiparticles. The team examined a crystal in which a layer of nickel atoms was arranged in a square lattice, and found that the electrons had broken this pattern and were instead aligned in stripes, called nematicity. Such experiments will help physicists test different proposed theories for the behavior of quantum systems with many particle interactions.