In a new development, researchers from Israel’s Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and their German counterparts have unveiled new insights into the enigmatic world of quasicrystals.
These unusual materials, discovered by Prof. Dan Shechtman in 1982 and awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2011, challenge our understanding of crystalline structures. The latest findings, published in Science, reveal that these higher-dimensional crystals have the mechanical properties of quasiperiodic crystals and their topological properties.
This study, led by Prof. Guy Bartal and Dr. Shai Tsesses from Technion’s Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, delves into the intricate realm of topology—a branch of mathematics that investigates geometric properties unchanged under continuous deformations. The researchers discovered that traditional methods for distinguishing between different quasiperiodic interference patterns were inadequate, necessitating reference to an “original” higher-dimensional crystal.
The team also found that two distinct topological patterns of surface waves appeared identical when measured after a specific time interval, extremely short and measured in attoseconds – a billionth of a billionth of a second. The findings support the earlier theory by Prof. Dov Levine and his advisor, Prof. Paul Steinhardt, which posits that this phenomenon results from a “competition” between topological and thermodynamic properties of the crystals.
The discoveries pave the way for new methods to measure the thermodynamic properties of quasiperiodic crystals, potentially opening doors to future applications in quantum computing algorithms, information representation, and transfer. As Prof. Bartal notes, “The fact that a quasicrystal is a ‘shadow’ of a periodic crystal in a higher dimension is not new.
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