Credit: Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Much like black holes (bottom right) are singularities in space, quantum critical points (QCPs) are point-like intersections between different states of a quantum material where all sorts of strange electron behavior are predicted to occur. A SLAC study found strong evidence for one such behavior: As a cuprate superconductor was tuned toward a QCP in the superconducting state at low temperatures, a proliferation of quantum fluctuations gradually melted charge stripes (from top left) – alternating stripes of stronger and weaker electron density – in the material.