Credit: Greg Stewart/SLAC National. Accelerator Laboratory
An illustration shows strongly interacting electrons carrying heat and charge from warmer to cooler regions of a quantum material. A theoretical study by SLAC, Stanford and the University of Illinois found that the ratio of heat transport to charge transport in cuprates ¬– quantum materials like this one, where electrons glom together and act cooperatively ¬– should be similar to the ratio in normal metals, where electrons behave as individuals. This surprising result overturns the idea that the 170-year-old Wiedemann-Franz law does not apply to quantum materials.