Potential new state of matter

Research is showing that among superconducting materials in high magnetic fields, the phenomenon of electronic symmetry breaking is common. "These heavy fermion materials have a different hierarchy of energy scales than is found in transition metal and organic materials, but they often have similar complex and intertwined physics coupling spin, charge and lattice degrees of freedom." - Common phenomenon could be key to understanding mechanism of unconventional superconductivity. LOS ALAMOS, N.M. Aug. 16 the phenomenon of electronic symmetry breaking is common. The ability to find similarities and differences among classes of materials with phenomena such as this helps researchers establish the essential ingredients that cause novel functionalities such as superconductivity. The high-magnetic-field state of the heavy fermion superconductor CeRhIn₅ revealed a so-called electronic nematic state, in which the material's electrons aligned in a way to reduce the symmetry of the original crystal, something that now appears to be universal among unconventional superconductors. Unconventional superconductivity develops near a phase boundary separating magnetically ordered and magnetically disordered phases of a material.