Theoretical exotic state of matter in which electrons barely interact with each other

Naoto Nagaosa and Bohm-Jung Yang from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science and co-workers have discovered a previously unknown state of matter that can occur when matter switches from one exotic quantum state to another at temperatures near absolute zero.

Matter is conventionally classified as solid, liquid, gas or plasma depending on the interaction and organization of its atoms. Recently, however, scientists have identified novel 'quantum phases' of matter that occur at extremely low temperatures near absolute zero as a result of specific types of interactions among electrons that only occur at these low temperatures. Just as early physicists were intrigued by classical changes from one state to another with increasing temperature, such as a solid melting to a liquid or a liquid evaporating into a gas, today's researchers are now fascinated by changes between these exotic quantum phases brought about by quantum-level fluctuations known as quantum phase transitions.