Two-Dimensional Collapse

In a case of unexpected discovery, fortune favored researchers at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. While inducing a potent magnetic field, at low temperatures, to a pigment known as Han purple - a pigment used ancient Chinese Xi'an terra cotta warriors - they discovered that it collapsed from three dimensions into two dimensions. As the temperatures neared the quantum limit (or "Quantum Critical Point"), the magnetic waves within the crystals of Han purple went from 3-D to 2-D.

The Han purple crystals became a Bose-Einstein condensate. In a phenomenon known as "geometrical frustration" (no, that isn't what you felt in high school geometry class), the vertical arrangement of the individual crystal layers became relevant, causing difficulty in the magnetic field existing in that third dimension.

Analysis of this dimensional reduction may have ramifications in the field of quantum computers, where understanding of relationships between the quantum and macroscopic worlds will be essential. This may potentially also help with high-temperature superconductors, a field which has major implications in electronics and energy usage.

For a more detailed account of the experiment, check out the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory's press release or the paper in Nature (requires Nature subscription).