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Data showing breaking of spatial inversion and rotational symmetries
An artistic representation of the data showing the breaking of spatial inversion and rotational symmetries in the pseudogap region of superconducting materials -- evidence that the pseudogap is a distinct phase of matter. Rings of light reflected from a superconductor reveal the broken symmetries. Caltech researchers have confirmed that the transitional phase of matter called a pseudogap -- one that occurs before these materials are cooled down to become superconducting -- represents a distinct state of matter, with properties very different from those of the superconducting state itself.
The research was funded in part by the National Science Foundation through an NSF Physics Frontiers Center (grant PHY 1125565).
Learn more about this research in the NSF News From the Field story New clues emerge in 30-year-old superconductor mystery. (Date image taken: unknown; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: Aug. 20, 2019)
Credit: Hsieh Lab/Caltech
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