A University of Michigan-led team has discovered quantum oscillations within an insulator’s bulk, overturning conventional understanding of material behavior and hinting at a mysterious “new duality” between conductors and insulators.
As a scientist who studies the properties of materials, Lu Li understands that people are eager to hear how his research might lead to new technologies or innovations. Yet, not every discovery has an obvious use. Some findings are simply too weird or extreme to translate into immediate applications.
Recently, Li and an international group of researchers uncovered one of these puzzling phenomena. Their findings were published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
“I would love to claim that there’s a great application, but my work keeps pushing that dream further away,” said Li, professor of physics at the University of Michigan. “But what we’ve found is still really bizarre and exciting.”
The research, partly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy, focuses on a phenomenon known as quantum oscillations. In metals, these oscillations occur when electrons behave like tiny springs, according to Li. By applying a magnetic field, scientists can control the rate at which these electron “springs” move.
In recent years, however, scientists have observed similar oscillations in insulators (materials that normally do not conduct heat or electricity). This unexpected discovery raised a major question within the field: do these oscillations arise only on the material’s surface, or do they originate deep within its bulk?
The Surface vs. Bulk Mystery
From the standpoint of applications, the surface would be the more enthralling answer. Scientists are already exploring materials called topological insulators, which demonstrate metal-like behaviors at their surfaces while maintaining an insulator identity in their bulk, to enable new electronic, optical and quantum technologies.
But working with the world’s largest and most powerful magnet lab in the world, the National Magnetic Field Laboratory, Li and his colleagues have provided evidence that the quantum oscillations arise from the bulk.
“I wish I knew what to do with that, but at this stage, we have no idea,” Li said. “What we have right now is experimental evidence of a remarkable phenomenon, we’ve recorded it and, hopefully, at some point, we’ll realize how to use it.”
The team included more than a dozen collaborators from six institutions in the U.S. and Japan. In addition to Li, the team included research fellow Kuan-Wen Chen and graduate students Yuan Zhu, Guoxin Zheng, Dechen Zhang, Aaron Chan, and Kaila Jenkins from U-M.
“For years, scientists have pursued the answer to a fundamental question about the carrier origin in this exotic insulator: Is it from the bulk or the surface, intrinsic or extrinsic?” Chen said. “We are excited to provide clear evidence that it is bulk and intrinsic.”
A New Kind of Duality
Li likes to think of this work as exploring the frontiers of what he calls the “new duality.” In this context, the original or “old” duality came with the advent of quantum mechanics more than a century ago. During this time, scientists were showing that light and matter exhibit both particle and wave-like behaviors. This idea proved to be pivotal, not only in fundamental physics, but in developing technologies like solar cells and electron microscopes that are now commonplace.
To Li, the new duality is the ability of materials to behave as both conductors and insulators. To explore quantum oscillations in this context, his team used experiments with a material called ytterbium boride, or YbB12, inside a very strong magnetic field.
“Effectively, we’re showing that this naive picture where we envisioned a surface with good conduction that’s feasible to use in electronics is completely wrong,” Li said. “It’s the whole compound that behaves like a metal even though it’s an insulator. Unfortunately, this crazy metal behavior only occurs at 35 Tesla—a magnetic field strength that’s about 35 times what’s inside an MRI machine.”
So, while the applications may not be immediately obvious, there is no shortage of questions to ask about the behavior and how researchers might capitalize on it in less extreme conditions.
“Confirming that the oscillations are bulk and intrinsic is exciting,” Zhu said. “We don’t yet know what kind of neutral particles are responsible for the observation. We hope our findings motivate further experiments and theoretical work.”
Reference: “Quantum Oscillations in the Heat Capacity of Kondo Insulator YbB12” by Kuan-Wen Chen, Yuan Zhu, Danilo Ratkovski, Guoxin Zheng, Dechen Zhang, Aaron Chan, Kaila Jenkins, Joanna Blawat, Tomoya Asaba, Fumitoshi Iga, Chandra M. Varma, Yuji Matsuda, John Singleton, Alimamy F. Bangura and Lu Li, 6 October 2025, Physical Review Letters.
DOI: 10.1103/ms3x-pjsk
Additional funding for the project was provided by the Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and Japan Science and Technology Agency.
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2 Comments
Memo 2511030442_Source 1. Reinterpretation Storytelling in Progress【】
Source 1.
https://scitechdaily.com/really-bizarre-physicists-uncover-a-quantum-material-that-breaks-all-the-rules/
1.
“Really bizarre” – Physicists discover quantum material that breaks all the rules.
_Deep within a material where electricity shouldn’t flow, scientists have discovered a phenomenon that defies expectations. This phenomenon challenges long-held assumptions about how matter behaves.
_A research team led by the University of Michigan has discovered quantum oscillations within an insulator, upending our understanding of material behavior and hinting at a mysterious “new duality” between conductors and insulators.
【Looking at matter from a new scientific perspective allows me to reinterpret it.
<<<<<My unique perspective on the world as a magic square isn't all that unique.
Just as artists express objects through color and musicians through notes, each person has their own professional perspective. It's like the tastes of a writer who catches and releases fish as a hobby or enjoys walks and travel. Everyone has their own perspectives, no matter their life. Religion, politics, career pursuits, romantic desires, family love, and even the pursuit of a comfortable lifestyle are all manifestations of their individuality.
<<>> While studying piles of numbers, piles of mass, and magic squares for a long time, I felt the need to reconstruct and reinterpret natural phenomena from my perspective. And so, I began the storytelling of my memos. Hmm.
<<<<<>This electromagnetic wave has already been defined as generating various types of electromagnetic waves within a matrix.
[1-2.]
_However, scientists have recently observed similar oscillations in insulators (materials that generally do not conduct heat or electricity).
_This unexpected discovery has raised important questions in the field. Do these vibrations originate only on the surface of a material, or do they originate deep within it?
>>>> If electromagnetic waves operate in non-conducting materials, then the question arises as to whether msbase necessarily falls within the electromagnetic field domain (*). Huh?
】
1-3. Surface vs. Bulk Mystery
From an application perspective, the surface is a more attractive answer. Scientists are already studying materials called topological insulators, which behave like metals on the surface but retain their insulator properties, potentially enabling new electronic, optical, and quantum technologies.
_However, in collaboration with the National Magnetic Field Laboratory, the world’s largest and most powerful magnet laboratory, Lee and his colleagues have presented evidence that quantum vibrations originate in a lump.
【That lump could be a two-way duality relationship. It could be 2loaf(qpeoms.nucleus≈msbase.electromagnetic waves). Huh?
】
2.
_”I’d love to know how to utilize it, but right now, I have no idea,” Lee said. “What we have now is experimental evidence for a remarkable phenomenon, and we’ve already documented it, so hopefully we’ll figure out how to utilize it someday.”
The team comprised more than a dozen collaborators from six institutions in the United States and Japan. In addition to Li, the team included researcher Quanwen Chen and graduate students Yuan Zhu, Guoxin Zheng, Dechen Zhang, Aaron Chan, and Kayla Jenkins from UM.
“For years, scientists have been trying to answer fundamental questions about the origin of carriers in this unusual insulator.
“Is it a bulk state, a surface state, intrinsic, or extrinsic?” Dr. Chen said. “We are pleased to present clear evidence that it is both a bulk state and intrinsic.”
2-2. A New Kind of Duality
Dr. Li likes to think of this research as exploring the frontiers of what he calls “a new kind of duality.”
In this context, the original, or “old”, duality emerged with the advent of quantum mechanics over a century ago.
During this period, scientists demonstrated that light and matter possess both particle and wave properties.
This idea played a pivotal role not only in fundamental physics but also in the development of today’s widely used technologies, such as solar cells and electron microscopes.
For Lee, the new duality is the ability of matter to simultaneously behave as both a conductor and an insulator. To explore quantum oscillations in this context, his research team conducted experiments using a material called ytterbium boride (YbB12) in extremely strong magnetic fields.
There appears to be a duality (≈) between msbase.electromagnetic waves and qpeoms.nucleus.
>>>>This fact evokes keyholes, black holes, and qqcell≈mbshells, which reveal how nature opened the world of mass and matter in spacetime from the world of nuclei.
】
3.
_”In fact, this naive notion of a highly conductive surface suitable for use in electronic devices has been proven completely wrong,” said Dr. Lee.
#1. [_”Despite being an insulator, the entire compound behaves like a metal. Unfortunately, this strange metallic behavior only occurs at 35 Tesla, a magnetic field strength approximately 35 times that of an MRI machine.”]
So, while these applications may not be immediately obvious, this behavior raises a wealth of questions, and researchers wonder how they might be exploited under less extreme conditions.
3-1.
_”It’s very exciting to see that the oscillations are both massive and unique,” said Professor Zhu. “We don’t yet know what type of neutral particle is responsible for these observations. We hope this discovery will motivate further experimental and theoretical studies.”
【msbase is itself an oscillator of electromagnetic wave arrays capable of large-scale, transient oscillations.
>>>If the primary goal is to understand how protons and neutrons within the nucleus primarily react to these vibrations, it could potentially open up a new world(*).
<<<<<>>>However, creating chemical elements [#1] requires tremendous extreme pressure. Around 3.5 billion Tesla…Of course, between electrons and between nucleons within the nucleus, it could be around 35 Tesla… Oh my.
>>> They create quasi-neutral particles, wimps, through oser, implementing oss.boson_chage.zerosum. Oh my.
】
I would say if this wire/insulator combo was small enough, i.e. a piece of wire with insulation, the oscillations could be measured perhaps gaining a function of what was being emitted. Like a transistor. Quantum states? There might be a whole plethora of uses. Just depends on form and function. I would grab engineers from different fields like aviation, propulsion, etc to see if this could be used in some way.