1 00:00:09,240 --> 00:00:11,600 Speaker 1: Daniel, where are you recording the podcast from these days? 2 00:00:11,880 --> 00:00:15,880 Speaker 1: Today I'm in my office at the university. Kind of disappointed. 3 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:18,480 Speaker 1: Wanted you to be like at the control center of 4 00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:21,160 Speaker 1: the L C or right next to where the particles collide, 5 00:00:21,280 --> 00:00:25,360 Speaker 1: kind of like a sportscaster. Nothing so glamorous, but I 6 00:00:25,440 --> 00:00:28,160 Speaker 1: mean pain a picture for us. What is your office 7 00:00:28,200 --> 00:00:31,200 Speaker 1: look like? Is it like in a dark dungeon, or 8 00:00:31,320 --> 00:00:33,080 Speaker 1: is it at the top of the in the Penthouse, 9 00:00:33,080 --> 00:00:35,559 Speaker 1: at the Corner Office? You know, something in between. I've 10 00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:38,320 Speaker 1: got a nice window here with a view outside of 11 00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:41,800 Speaker 1: the southern California landscape, but it's not like the biggest 12 00:00:41,840 --> 00:00:44,320 Speaker 1: office on the floor. We've got some real big shots 13 00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:49,080 Speaker 1: around here. You're more of a meeting shot, small shot. 14 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:52,159 Speaker 1: I'm a just right shot, your podcast shot now. Is 15 00:00:52,240 --> 00:00:55,200 Speaker 1: Everything in your office super organized, or are there like 16 00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:58,080 Speaker 1: huge stacks of papers everywhere? Well, I'm not the kind 17 00:00:58,080 --> 00:01:02,000 Speaker 1: of person who's at risk for because his desk collapses 18 00:01:02,120 --> 00:01:04,960 Speaker 1: under a huge tower of papers, but it's not exactly 19 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:08,200 Speaker 1: like a well organized museum or anything. It looks lived in. 20 00:01:08,319 --> 00:01:11,640 Speaker 1: You know, I think lived in his code for missing. 21 00:01:12,280 --> 00:01:13,679 Speaker 1: I don't know. What do you call something that's like 22 00:01:13,760 --> 00:01:17,280 Speaker 1: halfway between being neat and missing. Well, I'm a physicist, 23 00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:19,560 Speaker 1: so I would call it a phase transition. It's like 24 00:01:19,560 --> 00:01:22,880 Speaker 1: a melting point. You're kind of like a slush, like 25 00:01:22,920 --> 00:01:25,039 Speaker 1: a slushy. I'm hoping that if they crank of the 26 00:01:25,080 --> 00:01:28,000 Speaker 1: A C maybe my office will organize itself into a 27 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:31,520 Speaker 1: crystal and you'll freeze to death, also for serve for 28 00:01:31,560 --> 00:01:34,319 Speaker 1: future generations, but at least I'll look neat doing it 29 00:01:34,440 --> 00:01:51,680 Speaker 1: and you'll be pretty cool too. Hi, I'm poor. Hey, 30 00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:54,360 Speaker 1: I'm in a cartoonists and the CO author frequently asked 31 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:57,760 Speaker 1: questions about the universe. Hi, I'm Daniel. I'm a professor 32 00:01:57,840 --> 00:02:00,560 Speaker 1: at U C Irvine and a particle is this who 33 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:03,320 Speaker 1: worked at the large Hadron collider and I like to 34 00:02:03,320 --> 00:02:07,640 Speaker 1: think of myself as just messy enough, messy enough for what, 35 00:02:08,160 --> 00:02:11,560 Speaker 1: before not being neat, messy enough to have that lucky 36 00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:13,920 Speaker 1: stroke of insight, you know, when that pile of notes 37 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:16,040 Speaker 1: you took three years ago at a seminar just sort 38 00:02:16,040 --> 00:02:18,880 Speaker 1: of falls into your view and provides that crucial piece 39 00:02:18,919 --> 00:02:22,040 Speaker 1: of information to unlock the puzzle you're working on. If 40 00:02:22,040 --> 00:02:24,160 Speaker 1: you're too neat and organized and everything's tucked away and 41 00:02:24,240 --> 00:02:26,800 Speaker 1: you never have that sort of serendipity. I see, and 42 00:02:26,840 --> 00:02:30,120 Speaker 1: I assume that because your scientists, you have this tested right, 43 00:02:30,320 --> 00:02:32,959 Speaker 1: you've a scientificity proven, like you've done the control of 44 00:02:32,960 --> 00:02:36,080 Speaker 1: studies where you're really neat and more missy. Yeah, I 45 00:02:36,080 --> 00:02:38,240 Speaker 1: have a bunch of other Daniels in the basement and 46 00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:40,160 Speaker 1: I make them be really neat and messy and I 47 00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:42,920 Speaker 1: keep track of their careers also, and I guess you're 48 00:02:42,960 --> 00:02:45,200 Speaker 1: the most successful one because you're not at the basement right, 49 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:48,440 Speaker 1: so that proves your theory. I guess I'm the only 50 00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:50,840 Speaker 1: one with a podcast, which maybe means I'm a failure 51 00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:54,520 Speaker 1: as a scientist. I'm not sure the other ones are 52 00:02:54,560 --> 00:02:57,400 Speaker 1: actually doing physics. Is that what you're saying? They're still 53 00:02:57,480 --> 00:03:01,959 Speaker 1: newon research exactly, but anyways, welcome to our PODCAST, Daniel 54 00:03:01,960 --> 00:03:05,120 Speaker 1: and Jorge explain the universe, a production of my heart radio, 55 00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:08,919 Speaker 1: in which we try to find order in this messy universe, 56 00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:12,840 Speaker 1: this chaotic swirl of particles going to and fro weaving 57 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:16,760 Speaker 1: themselves together into this incredible, beautiful reality that we want 58 00:03:16,800 --> 00:03:20,320 Speaker 1: to make sense of. While galaxies smash into each other 59 00:03:20,360 --> 00:03:23,320 Speaker 1: and particles annihilate each other, we step back and try 60 00:03:23,320 --> 00:03:25,560 Speaker 1: to organize all the things that are happening out there 61 00:03:25,560 --> 00:03:28,480 Speaker 1: in the universe into a crystalline set of ideas that 62 00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:32,000 Speaker 1: we can transmit along these audio waves into your brains. 63 00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:34,519 Speaker 1: It's right, because it is a pretty messy universe, full 64 00:03:34,520 --> 00:03:37,800 Speaker 1: of amazing and exciting things happening out there, particles crashing 65 00:03:37,840 --> 00:03:40,680 Speaker 1: into each other's black holes sucking up things. And yet 66 00:03:40,760 --> 00:03:43,480 Speaker 1: somehow we have, as humans, figured out that there is 67 00:03:43,520 --> 00:03:45,120 Speaker 1: a little bit of a order to all of this, 68 00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:48,960 Speaker 1: even if we aren't very ordered ourselves. And of course 69 00:03:49,040 --> 00:03:51,960 Speaker 1: we don't know if that order exists in the universe 70 00:03:52,080 --> 00:03:54,720 Speaker 1: or if it's just something we have imposed on it. 71 00:03:54,800 --> 00:03:57,360 Speaker 1: Does the universe actually makes sense? Are we just telling 72 00:03:57,440 --> 00:04:01,880 Speaker 1: ourselves these stories of UN in the philosophy of physics? 73 00:04:01,920 --> 00:04:04,520 Speaker 1: But so far it works for us. It lets US 74 00:04:04,600 --> 00:04:08,400 Speaker 1: build airplanes and transistors and all kinds of new materials 75 00:04:08,480 --> 00:04:11,440 Speaker 1: that ruin and save our lives. Are you saying the 76 00:04:11,520 --> 00:04:14,160 Speaker 1: universe is just messy enough? I'm saying it melts my 77 00:04:14,320 --> 00:04:17,760 Speaker 1: brain sometimes melts in your mouth. All that knowledge, I wonder, 78 00:04:17,800 --> 00:04:19,800 Speaker 1: what would you like if the universe melted in your 79 00:04:19,800 --> 00:04:21,560 Speaker 1: hand instead of your mouth? Well, first of all, can 80 00:04:21,600 --> 00:04:23,760 Speaker 1: you hold the universe in your hand? Only has a 81 00:04:23,800 --> 00:04:27,640 Speaker 1: thin candy coating, right, but you are in the universe 82 00:04:27,680 --> 00:04:31,320 Speaker 1: also putting your hand the inside the Eminem two. We 83 00:04:31,400 --> 00:04:34,080 Speaker 1: are all EMINEM's. That's the philosophy on this show. But 84 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:35,719 Speaker 1: are you the chocolate or are you the candy? and 85 00:04:35,760 --> 00:04:39,839 Speaker 1: which color is your eminem? Knowledge is the chocolate and 86 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:42,359 Speaker 1: this show is the candy coating. That helps it go 87 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:45,360 Speaker 1: down smooth keeps it from melting in your mouth or 88 00:04:45,400 --> 00:04:48,000 Speaker 1: in your hand exactly as you crunch on through it, 89 00:04:48,120 --> 00:04:50,120 Speaker 1: or in your ears. That would be pretty messy. You 90 00:04:50,160 --> 00:04:52,080 Speaker 1: know what melt the chocolate in your ears. Are you 91 00:04:52,080 --> 00:04:54,960 Speaker 1: suggesting people do or do not put Eminem's in their ears? 92 00:04:54,960 --> 00:04:57,040 Speaker 1: That's sort of lost track here. I know children do 93 00:04:57,240 --> 00:05:00,080 Speaker 1: and we have kids listening. Are you saying you know 94 00:05:00,200 --> 00:05:02,279 Speaker 1: the results of that experiment, that if you put Eminem's 95 00:05:02,279 --> 00:05:06,280 Speaker 1: in your ears they do not melt? I can guess 96 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:09,040 Speaker 1: what happens, but thing it's science is not about guessing. 97 00:05:09,040 --> 00:05:12,000 Speaker 1: It's about going out there and doing experiments and discovering 98 00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:15,520 Speaker 1: what actually happens when you make new arrangements that nobody 99 00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:18,720 Speaker 1: has ever thought of before. Sometimes it's adding weird metals 100 00:05:18,720 --> 00:05:21,920 Speaker 1: to other metals, sometimes it's putting eminem's in ears. That's right, 101 00:05:21,960 --> 00:05:24,480 Speaker 1: because we know the universe is made out of particles 102 00:05:24,480 --> 00:05:27,240 Speaker 1: and bits of energy out there. But as it turns out, 103 00:05:27,240 --> 00:05:29,000 Speaker 1: there are lots of different ways you can put together 104 00:05:29,040 --> 00:05:31,640 Speaker 1: those bits of matter and energy and which gives you 105 00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:34,039 Speaker 1: all kinds of different results, and there are people still 106 00:05:34,160 --> 00:05:36,800 Speaker 1: figuring this out. You know, I'm a particle physicists. Of 107 00:05:36,920 --> 00:05:40,359 Speaker 1: My natural inclination for understanding how the world works is 108 00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:43,600 Speaker 1: to take it apart, is to reduce it to its smallest, 109 00:05:43,680 --> 00:05:46,440 Speaker 1: most fundamental elements. But there are other people who work 110 00:05:46,480 --> 00:05:49,560 Speaker 1: in a completely different direction. Their basic question is, how 111 00:05:49,600 --> 00:05:52,360 Speaker 1: do we make some new kind of Goo? And can 112 00:05:52,360 --> 00:05:54,640 Speaker 1: we make good that can do things that Goo never 113 00:05:54,720 --> 00:05:58,479 Speaker 1: did before? They combine those fundamental pieces of the universe 114 00:05:58,520 --> 00:06:01,000 Speaker 1: in new ways to try to make him dance and 115 00:06:01,120 --> 00:06:03,839 Speaker 1: Jiggle and do things that no other kinds of Google 116 00:06:03,880 --> 00:06:06,680 Speaker 1: have done before. Yeah, because there are many different ways 117 00:06:06,720 --> 00:06:10,720 Speaker 1: that matter can arrange itself. They're called states of matter. Right, 118 00:06:10,800 --> 00:06:14,720 Speaker 1: there's liquid and gas and solids and plasma. Right that 119 00:06:14,720 --> 00:06:16,240 Speaker 1: those are the states of matter that we know of. 120 00:06:16,400 --> 00:06:19,360 Speaker 1: Those are the famous classical states of matter. But as 121 00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:22,240 Speaker 1: we explore the universe and push on these things we 122 00:06:22,320 --> 00:06:25,040 Speaker 1: discover the matter, can do all sorts of weird kinds 123 00:06:25,080 --> 00:06:28,159 Speaker 1: of things. We talked on the podcast recently about Cork 124 00:06:28,279 --> 00:06:32,040 Speaker 1: gluon plasma, or you called it Quasma, a great name, 125 00:06:32,080 --> 00:06:35,600 Speaker 1: by the way. Yes, I'm still waiting for my noble price. Well, 126 00:06:35,640 --> 00:06:38,680 Speaker 1: just keep eating Banasma as you wait. Yeah, yeah, that 127 00:06:38,760 --> 00:06:42,200 Speaker 1: might slip with the Noble Price Committee, but it's amazing 128 00:06:42,279 --> 00:06:45,160 Speaker 1: to me all the things that emerge in our universe. 129 00:06:45,240 --> 00:06:47,400 Speaker 1: You know, one deep answer to the question what is 130 00:06:47,440 --> 00:06:50,279 Speaker 1: the universe made out of is to reveal its fundamental bits. 131 00:06:50,400 --> 00:06:53,239 Speaker 1: But I think it's equally important to understand what those 132 00:06:53,279 --> 00:06:56,760 Speaker 1: bits do when they work together, because you can't explain 133 00:06:56,760 --> 00:06:59,440 Speaker 1: the entire universe from the fundamental pieces. Even if you 134 00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:02,240 Speaker 1: had a complete and unique string theory that described the 135 00:07:02,279 --> 00:07:05,480 Speaker 1: fundamental theory of everything, you couldn't use it to predict 136 00:07:05,640 --> 00:07:08,960 Speaker 1: hurricanes or traffic on the four oh five, because these 137 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:11,800 Speaker 1: are properties that emerge at a different scale. When you 138 00:07:11,920 --> 00:07:14,640 Speaker 1: zoom out from the universe from this time, these little bits, 139 00:07:14,760 --> 00:07:18,040 Speaker 1: you notice these incredible properties, places where we find these 140 00:07:18,120 --> 00:07:21,760 Speaker 1: interesting and simple mathematical stories that we can tell about 141 00:07:21,800 --> 00:07:24,920 Speaker 1: the universe, whether or not they are fundamental. Yeah, so 142 00:07:24,960 --> 00:07:27,360 Speaker 1: there are these four basic states of matter that most 143 00:07:27,360 --> 00:07:30,680 Speaker 1: people are familiar with, solid gas, liquid plasma, and we're, 144 00:07:30,680 --> 00:07:33,000 Speaker 1: I guess they're popular and people know them because we 145 00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:35,120 Speaker 1: see them in our everyday lives. Right. They're sort of 146 00:07:35,120 --> 00:07:38,120 Speaker 1: what how matter usually sticks together. But, as you were saying, 147 00:07:38,160 --> 00:07:40,560 Speaker 1: there are many other ways that matter can stick together 148 00:07:40,760 --> 00:07:45,320 Speaker 1: if you go down into the weirder realm of quantum physics. Yeah, 149 00:07:45,320 --> 00:07:47,840 Speaker 1: if you stick things together in weird ways and Zap 150 00:07:47,920 --> 00:07:50,520 Speaker 1: them with lasers, you can find stuff that does things 151 00:07:50,520 --> 00:07:53,800 Speaker 1: that no other kind of stuff can do. You've probably 152 00:07:53,800 --> 00:07:58,240 Speaker 1: heard of Bose Einstein condensates, for example, weird collections of 153 00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:01,920 Speaker 1: particles that act all together as a single quantum state, 154 00:08:02,080 --> 00:08:06,680 Speaker 1: a macroscopic blob of stuff with quantum properties. That's another 155 00:08:06,760 --> 00:08:09,720 Speaker 1: example of how you can squeeze and tweak matter into 156 00:08:09,760 --> 00:08:13,160 Speaker 1: weird configurations to do new kinds of stuff and new 157 00:08:13,240 --> 00:08:15,840 Speaker 1: kinds of stuff. Is What we'll be talking about here today. 158 00:08:16,040 --> 00:08:18,400 Speaker 1: So to be on the PODCAST, we'll be asking the question. 159 00:08:23,480 --> 00:08:27,760 Speaker 1: What are quantum glasses? Now, Daniel, I'm guessing these are 160 00:08:27,800 --> 00:08:30,760 Speaker 1: not just things you wear to see quantum things better. 161 00:08:31,520 --> 00:08:34,120 Speaker 1: When we go to a quantum physics conference, everybody puts 162 00:08:34,160 --> 00:08:36,640 Speaker 1: these things on. It's not going to a three D movie, right. 163 00:08:37,440 --> 00:08:39,760 Speaker 1: It's for cure and quantum myopia. Is that what it's 164 00:08:40,040 --> 00:08:44,120 Speaker 1: there for? Or are they for drinking quantum wine or juice? 165 00:08:44,240 --> 00:08:46,719 Speaker 1: Quantum juice? So you can say I'm not sure if 166 00:08:46,760 --> 00:08:49,160 Speaker 1: I drink that glass of wine or if somebody else did, 167 00:08:49,320 --> 00:08:52,120 Speaker 1: shrouding your drink my glass of wine, I meaning glasses 168 00:08:52,120 --> 00:08:55,280 Speaker 1: of quantum. Have you drunk today? One and zero at 169 00:08:55,320 --> 00:08:59,800 Speaker 1: the same time. There's a probability distribution that I'm drunk 170 00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:02,720 Speaker 1: quantum glasses. So these are two words I'm familiar with, 171 00:09:02,840 --> 00:09:05,320 Speaker 1: but I've never seen them together in the same phrase. 172 00:09:05,559 --> 00:09:08,640 Speaker 1: These are really interesting kind of materials. Sometimes they're also 173 00:09:08,720 --> 00:09:12,400 Speaker 1: called spin glasses, as we'll learn about later, because they 174 00:09:12,440 --> 00:09:16,080 Speaker 1: involve quantum spin. So it's a really fun topic and 175 00:09:16,160 --> 00:09:18,520 Speaker 1: something a bunch of listeners have been emailing me about 176 00:09:18,600 --> 00:09:22,560 Speaker 1: because they saw articles about spin glasses and quantum glasses 177 00:09:22,559 --> 00:09:25,560 Speaker 1: and they wanted to understand. Hey, what are these things anyway? 178 00:09:26,360 --> 00:09:29,280 Speaker 1: Interesting and can you make a spin bottle out of glass? 179 00:09:29,720 --> 00:09:31,319 Speaker 1: Is that the same thing? I think you're thinking of 180 00:09:31,400 --> 00:09:35,360 Speaker 1: the game spin, the boss Spin right. Well, as usually, 181 00:09:35,400 --> 00:09:37,199 Speaker 1: we were wondering how many people out there had heard 182 00:09:37,200 --> 00:09:40,160 Speaker 1: of this phrase quantum glasses or had any idea of 183 00:09:40,200 --> 00:09:42,520 Speaker 1: what they are. So thank you very much to those 184 00:09:42,520 --> 00:09:44,960 Speaker 1: of you who are willing to answer these questions. It's 185 00:09:44,960 --> 00:09:47,319 Speaker 1: really helpful to give us a sense for what people 186 00:09:47,360 --> 00:09:49,840 Speaker 1: are thinking and what they already know. If you'd like 187 00:09:49,920 --> 00:09:53,040 Speaker 1: to participate for future episodes, please don't be shy. Right 188 00:09:53,080 --> 00:09:56,000 Speaker 1: to me two questions at Daniel and Jorge Dot Com 189 00:09:56,040 --> 00:09:57,839 Speaker 1: and I'll set you up. So think about it for 190 00:09:57,880 --> 00:10:00,439 Speaker 1: a second. What do you think quantum glass this are, 191 00:10:00,760 --> 00:10:02,760 Speaker 1: and what could you see with them? Here's what to 192 00:10:02,760 --> 00:10:06,040 Speaker 1: be glad to say. Quantum glasses, I guess, are not 193 00:10:06,520 --> 00:10:10,280 Speaker 1: spectacles to view through, but they should be a kind 194 00:10:10,320 --> 00:10:14,640 Speaker 1: of material. In material science, glasses are a class of 195 00:10:14,640 --> 00:10:19,200 Speaker 1: materials that are characterized by being that it disorganized. So 196 00:10:19,520 --> 00:10:26,120 Speaker 1: quantum glasses should be a quantum soup that is disorganized. 197 00:10:26,520 --> 00:10:29,320 Speaker 1: I have no idea. I don't think they're the tiny 198 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:32,080 Speaker 1: little reading glasses that some people perched on the end 199 00:10:32,080 --> 00:10:34,839 Speaker 1: of their nose, nor are they the tiny little shot 200 00:10:34,880 --> 00:10:37,720 Speaker 1: glasses one might use for a very strong drink. Even 201 00:10:37,720 --> 00:10:41,199 Speaker 1: those are not quite quantum level, and one should use 202 00:10:41,280 --> 00:10:44,640 Speaker 1: distance glasses, if any, rather than reading glasses and not 203 00:10:44,760 --> 00:10:49,160 Speaker 1: drink alcohol while driving a Volkswagen Quantum. So I'm going 204 00:10:49,200 --> 00:10:53,079 Speaker 1: to take a wild guess that there's something that refocuses 205 00:10:53,520 --> 00:10:57,880 Speaker 1: beams of quantum particles, much like how eyeglasses and other 206 00:10:57,880 --> 00:11:02,800 Speaker 1: such lenses refocusames of light. I have absolutely no idea 207 00:11:02,880 --> 00:11:05,280 Speaker 1: what quantum glasses could be, so this is going to 208 00:11:05,360 --> 00:11:09,040 Speaker 1: be a completely uneducated guest in every way. My mind 209 00:11:09,080 --> 00:11:12,120 Speaker 1: originally went to glasses, like glasses who wear, but then 210 00:11:12,120 --> 00:11:15,120 Speaker 1: I also thought of glasses as like a container for 211 00:11:15,160 --> 00:11:18,480 Speaker 1: a liquid. So my guess is that it is some 212 00:11:18,520 --> 00:11:23,920 Speaker 1: type of container through which we can better observe quantum events, 213 00:11:23,960 --> 00:11:27,640 Speaker 1: events on a quantum scale. I think quantum glasses is 214 00:11:27,679 --> 00:11:35,240 Speaker 1: a system physicists use two negotiate quantum theory. Either that 215 00:11:35,520 --> 00:11:38,960 Speaker 1: or it's the glasses I used to use when I 216 00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:43,439 Speaker 1: was a heavy drinker. But take a guess. Quantum glasses 217 00:11:44,400 --> 00:11:51,400 Speaker 1: helps you see shrodingerl's cat, exactly what that cat is doing, 218 00:11:52,120 --> 00:11:55,760 Speaker 1: and it's no whereabouts. If I was to reduce, I 219 00:11:55,880 --> 00:11:59,400 Speaker 1: reckon it's some way of being able to utilize something 220 00:11:59,440 --> 00:12:03,600 Speaker 1: to view or to assess the way the quantum world 221 00:12:03,760 --> 00:12:07,079 Speaker 1: is behaving, similar to a spectacles on to say the world. 222 00:12:07,559 --> 00:12:09,560 Speaker 1: I wonder if it's got something to do with our 223 00:12:09,600 --> 00:12:13,200 Speaker 1: ability to say or interact with the quantum world. All Right, 224 00:12:13,640 --> 00:12:16,880 Speaker 1: a lot of interesting ideas. I love the tiny little 225 00:12:16,960 --> 00:12:21,640 Speaker 1: reading glasses. They're like little quantum particles you put in 226 00:12:21,640 --> 00:12:24,280 Speaker 1: your eyeballs. Is that what they're saying? No, I'm imagining 227 00:12:24,320 --> 00:12:27,280 Speaker 1: like literal tiny glasses perched at the very, very tip 228 00:12:27,320 --> 00:12:30,680 Speaker 1: of my nose, and they're there and they're not there 229 00:12:30,760 --> 00:12:33,960 Speaker 1: at the same time. But I'm most impressed with this 230 00:12:34,040 --> 00:12:38,600 Speaker 1: one guest that says glasses are disorganized. So maybe quantum 231 00:12:38,600 --> 00:12:42,839 Speaker 1: glasses are a disorganized quantum soup. That is so close 232 00:12:42,880 --> 00:12:47,040 Speaker 1: to correct I'm amazed. Yeah, yeah, I feel like maybe 233 00:12:47,040 --> 00:12:49,000 Speaker 1: they cheated or something that. I wonder if they read 234 00:12:49,040 --> 00:12:51,199 Speaker 1: an article about this. I don't know the rules are. 235 00:12:51,240 --> 00:12:54,160 Speaker 1: You're not allowed to Google. So, you know, maybe they 236 00:12:54,200 --> 00:12:58,240 Speaker 1: just intuited it. Maybe this person just is a physics genius. Wow, 237 00:12:58,600 --> 00:13:01,280 Speaker 1: maybe you should be hiring them, or maybe you already 238 00:13:01,320 --> 00:13:03,800 Speaker 1: hird them. I don't know. Did you ask your Grad Students? Sometimes? 239 00:13:03,920 --> 00:13:06,640 Speaker 1: I do sometimes, but these are all random Internet people, 240 00:13:06,679 --> 00:13:09,520 Speaker 1: although you know, some of our listeners are physics Grad 241 00:13:09,559 --> 00:13:12,079 Speaker 1: students and some of them aren't. So there's a pretty 242 00:13:12,080 --> 00:13:14,440 Speaker 1: wide spectrum of backgrounds. Yes, in the end we're all 243 00:13:14,520 --> 00:13:17,480 Speaker 1: random Internet people, Daniel, but anyways, lots of great ideas, 244 00:13:17,480 --> 00:13:21,439 Speaker 1: and so let's dig into it. What is a quantum glass? Daniel, 245 00:13:21,600 --> 00:13:23,760 Speaker 1: break it down for us. So, basically, our listener gave 246 00:13:23,880 --> 00:13:26,880 Speaker 1: us the answer. A quantum glass is a material where 247 00:13:26,880 --> 00:13:30,920 Speaker 1: the quantum states are disordered in a way that's similar 248 00:13:31,280 --> 00:13:34,439 Speaker 1: to way like a window glass is a disordered solid 249 00:13:34,920 --> 00:13:37,800 Speaker 1: rather than like an ordered crystal. You know. That means 250 00:13:37,800 --> 00:13:40,800 Speaker 1: that things on the inside are not like arranged, so 251 00:13:40,920 --> 00:13:43,840 Speaker 1: everything points in the same direction. It's sort of scrambled 252 00:13:43,880 --> 00:13:48,120 Speaker 1: a little bit. MM interesting because I guess bits of matter, 253 00:13:48,240 --> 00:13:52,360 Speaker 1: atoms and quantum particles, they have a specific direction, aren't 254 00:13:52,360 --> 00:13:55,240 Speaker 1: they just like little blobs? They do have specific directions 255 00:13:55,280 --> 00:13:58,040 Speaker 1: because they have quantum spins, right, and luxurns are not 256 00:13:58,080 --> 00:14:01,160 Speaker 1: just tiny particles with charred gen mass. They also have 257 00:14:01,320 --> 00:14:05,320 Speaker 1: other quantum properties, including this weird thing quantum spin, that 258 00:14:05,400 --> 00:14:08,920 Speaker 1: we don't fundamentally know what it is. We don't think 259 00:14:08,960 --> 00:14:12,360 Speaker 1: that these electrons are actually spinning because we think of 260 00:14:12,360 --> 00:14:15,160 Speaker 1: them as point particles. And even if you account for 261 00:14:15,200 --> 00:14:18,720 Speaker 1: the width of their wave function, if they were literally spinning, 262 00:14:18,720 --> 00:14:21,200 Speaker 1: then their surfaces would have to go faster than the 263 00:14:21,280 --> 00:14:24,000 Speaker 1: speed of light to explain all of this energy. It's 264 00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:26,520 Speaker 1: some other weird property. We have a whole podcast episode 265 00:14:26,520 --> 00:14:29,520 Speaker 1: about what is quantum spin. For today, all we need 266 00:14:29,560 --> 00:14:32,000 Speaker 1: to know is that it can have a direction. Electron 267 00:14:32,080 --> 00:14:34,760 Speaker 1: is gonna be like spin up or spin down, and 268 00:14:34,760 --> 00:14:38,200 Speaker 1: this is true for other particles. Protons and neutrons and 269 00:14:38,280 --> 00:14:41,480 Speaker 1: even for atoms, can have an overall spin. So that 270 00:14:41,560 --> 00:14:44,680 Speaker 1: gives them a directionality. They're not just points, right. They 271 00:14:44,680 --> 00:14:47,960 Speaker 1: have a property that somehow points in a certain specific 272 00:14:47,960 --> 00:14:50,400 Speaker 1: direction in space. And you said it's just sort of 273 00:14:50,480 --> 00:14:53,920 Speaker 1: like normal glass to like maybe let's start with that. 274 00:14:54,080 --> 00:14:57,000 Speaker 1: What is a normal glass? Yeah, so a normal glass 275 00:14:57,080 --> 00:14:59,360 Speaker 1: is something that feels solid. Like you go to Your 276 00:14:59,400 --> 00:15:02,320 Speaker 1: Window Pane Ene and you touch it, it it feels solid, right. 277 00:15:02,400 --> 00:15:05,280 Speaker 1: But most solids out there are not like glass. Most 278 00:15:05,280 --> 00:15:08,560 Speaker 1: solids are ordered. They're organized like a crystal, you know. 279 00:15:08,560 --> 00:15:10,320 Speaker 1: They're sort of like built out of a bunch of 280 00:15:10,360 --> 00:15:13,680 Speaker 1: tiny bricks that are all stacked together very nicely and 281 00:15:13,720 --> 00:15:17,040 Speaker 1: neatly into like a big cubic lattice. You can think 282 00:15:17,040 --> 00:15:19,200 Speaker 1: of them as like a bunch of atoms where the 283 00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:22,120 Speaker 1: atoms all line up in three directions. You know, if 284 00:15:22,160 --> 00:15:24,560 Speaker 1: you like sort of looked down it, you could line 285 00:15:24,640 --> 00:15:26,480 Speaker 1: up all the atoms sort of like in front of 286 00:15:26,520 --> 00:15:29,760 Speaker 1: you and then along the surface and this kind of thing. 287 00:15:30,200 --> 00:15:33,680 Speaker 1: So most stuff that's out there is fairly well organized, 288 00:15:33,720 --> 00:15:36,080 Speaker 1: but a glass is not a glass. It's just sort 289 00:15:36,080 --> 00:15:39,080 Speaker 1: of like a pile of stuff that's stuck together, but 290 00:15:39,160 --> 00:15:41,720 Speaker 1: it's not well organized. What do you mean? Mean? Like, 291 00:15:41,760 --> 00:15:45,760 Speaker 1: my wooden desk is neatly organized, but it looks pretty messy. 292 00:15:45,880 --> 00:15:48,160 Speaker 1: Your wooden desk is even more complicated because it has 293 00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:51,160 Speaker 1: all sorts of structure in the wood itself. But you know, 294 00:15:51,160 --> 00:15:52,520 Speaker 1: if you take it like a block of ice, it's 295 00:15:52,520 --> 00:15:55,480 Speaker 1: a single kind of stuff. It's cold and the atoms 296 00:15:55,480 --> 00:15:57,920 Speaker 1: inside of it are arranged in a lattice. There's like 297 00:15:57,960 --> 00:16:01,480 Speaker 1: the distance between two atoms is pretty much a single number, 298 00:16:01,600 --> 00:16:04,160 Speaker 1: and that's true for most things like metals, et CETERA. 299 00:16:04,360 --> 00:16:06,600 Speaker 1: But they're both solid, right, like a piece of glass 300 00:16:06,680 --> 00:16:09,400 Speaker 1: is solid, just like a piece of ice is solid too. 301 00:16:09,480 --> 00:16:11,840 Speaker 1: That's right. A piece of glass is solid because its 302 00:16:11,920 --> 00:16:14,520 Speaker 1: volume doesn't change and it's shape doesn't change. The build 303 00:16:14,600 --> 00:16:16,480 Speaker 1: just sit there, right. But if you zoomed in with 304 00:16:16,560 --> 00:16:20,240 Speaker 1: a microscope, an amorphous solid like glass would look very 305 00:16:20,320 --> 00:16:22,800 Speaker 1: different from a crystal solid, a crystal slid. You would 306 00:16:22,880 --> 00:16:24,520 Speaker 1: zoom in and it would look like it's built out 307 00:16:24,520 --> 00:16:27,000 Speaker 1: of these little pieces that are all arranged very nicely, 308 00:16:27,040 --> 00:16:29,440 Speaker 1: like somebody stacked a bunch of legos together, whereas an 309 00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:32,480 Speaker 1: amorphous solid would look like, you know, the inside of 310 00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:34,720 Speaker 1: your Lego bin before you built something would be like 311 00:16:34,800 --> 00:16:38,720 Speaker 1: a disorganized pile of stuff that's still somehow stuck together. 312 00:16:38,800 --> 00:16:40,840 Speaker 1: And you know, glass is an example of it. And 313 00:16:40,880 --> 00:16:44,200 Speaker 1: then we call these things glasses. But there are other examples, 314 00:16:44,240 --> 00:16:46,720 Speaker 1: like a lot of plastics are like this, gels are 315 00:16:46,760 --> 00:16:49,040 Speaker 1: like this. You know, sand is like this. If you 316 00:16:49,160 --> 00:16:51,600 Speaker 1: zoom in close enough, it's not like stacked up in 317 00:16:51,640 --> 00:16:53,760 Speaker 1: little bricks, it's just sort of like a big jumble. 318 00:16:54,280 --> 00:16:56,760 Speaker 1: But you're right, it is solid. It manages to stick 319 00:16:56,800 --> 00:17:00,400 Speaker 1: together well enough still have the properties of a solid, right, 320 00:17:00,440 --> 00:17:03,280 Speaker 1: although I've heard glasses actually a liquid, like a really 321 00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:05,760 Speaker 1: slow liquid, right, isn't it? That is something that is 322 00:17:05,800 --> 00:17:08,800 Speaker 1: said often, but I don't think it's actually true. I 323 00:17:08,840 --> 00:17:12,360 Speaker 1: think the people have been misled by old windows, for example, 324 00:17:12,400 --> 00:17:14,320 Speaker 1: that are thicker on the bottom than on the top. 325 00:17:14,480 --> 00:17:18,439 Speaker 1: That's mostly because of the glass making process at the time. 326 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:21,920 Speaker 1: Glass itself, I don't think, actually flows on a time 327 00:17:21,960 --> 00:17:24,240 Speaker 1: scale that humans can measure, but on a long time 328 00:17:24,280 --> 00:17:26,679 Speaker 1: scale it sort of does. Right technically, it's true that 329 00:17:26,720 --> 00:17:29,920 Speaker 1: these things can flow on very, very long time scales, 330 00:17:30,200 --> 00:17:32,080 Speaker 1: but most of the things where you see it's like 331 00:17:32,119 --> 00:17:34,320 Speaker 1: thicker on the bottom than on the top is not 332 00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:37,280 Speaker 1: because the glasses flowed. It's a little bit unclear exactly 333 00:17:37,320 --> 00:17:39,960 Speaker 1: what the time scale is for glass to flow into 334 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:42,720 Speaker 1: a puddle, for example. It might be a very, very 335 00:17:42,760 --> 00:17:45,359 Speaker 1: long time scale. Well, Um, I guess maybe a question 336 00:17:45,359 --> 00:17:47,879 Speaker 1: I have is what's the difference between something that is 337 00:17:47,920 --> 00:17:50,280 Speaker 1: a glass and something that is not a glass? Like 338 00:17:50,520 --> 00:17:55,760 Speaker 1: what makes some materials arrange themselves into crystal structure, lattices, 339 00:17:55,840 --> 00:17:58,840 Speaker 1: and what makes them just stick together morphously? The answer 340 00:17:58,920 --> 00:18:02,040 Speaker 1: is that it is complicated. For some materials it depends 341 00:18:02,119 --> 00:18:05,120 Speaker 1: on how they are cooled. So if you cool things really, 342 00:18:05,160 --> 00:18:07,320 Speaker 1: really fast, they don't have a chance for the crystal 343 00:18:07,400 --> 00:18:10,840 Speaker 1: to organize itself. Other materials just don't fall into a 344 00:18:10,880 --> 00:18:14,160 Speaker 1: crystal because of the way their interactions work. They can't 345 00:18:14,200 --> 00:18:16,760 Speaker 1: build a regular lattice it depends a lot on the 346 00:18:16,760 --> 00:18:19,639 Speaker 1: exact material and also on how you get it to 347 00:18:19,840 --> 00:18:22,800 Speaker 1: its state. So some things can be crystals or can 348 00:18:22,840 --> 00:18:25,600 Speaker 1: be glasses, and it just depends on how quickly they 349 00:18:25,600 --> 00:18:27,920 Speaker 1: are cooled down. Doesn't a lot of it also depend 350 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:31,640 Speaker 1: on like the structure of the molecules in the material? 351 00:18:31,800 --> 00:18:34,160 Speaker 1: For example, you know, like maybe what I think, water 352 00:18:34,320 --> 00:18:37,159 Speaker 1: falls into crystals because the two H and the o 353 00:18:37,440 --> 00:18:39,840 Speaker 1: kind of form a kind of a weird shape and 354 00:18:39,880 --> 00:18:41,920 Speaker 1: there there are only so many different ways you can 355 00:18:42,119 --> 00:18:44,359 Speaker 1: kind of make those shapes stick together. Yeah, that's what 356 00:18:44,400 --> 00:18:47,160 Speaker 1: I mean by the interactions of the materials. They imagine. 357 00:18:47,160 --> 00:18:49,119 Speaker 1: For example, you have a weird shaped tile, a question 358 00:18:49,160 --> 00:18:51,639 Speaker 1: you can ask is like can I tile this across 359 00:18:51,680 --> 00:18:53,960 Speaker 1: the floor in a regular pattern? And that's basically what 360 00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:56,119 Speaker 1: you're trying to do when you build a crystal is 361 00:18:56,200 --> 00:18:58,560 Speaker 1: like fill up a space with a regular pattern with 362 00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:01,040 Speaker 1: a weird shape that you have. So, as you say, 363 00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:03,320 Speaker 1: for example, water has kind of a weird shape, but 364 00:19:03,359 --> 00:19:05,800 Speaker 1: it's capable of building crystal. But actually it can build 365 00:19:05,840 --> 00:19:08,840 Speaker 1: lots of different kinds of crystals based on the temperature 366 00:19:08,880 --> 00:19:11,760 Speaker 1: and pressure of its formation. There's like ice four and 367 00:19:11,800 --> 00:19:14,400 Speaker 1: ice six and ice. Nine. These are all different crystal 368 00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:17,359 Speaker 1: arrangements of the same basic thing, based on the temperature 369 00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:19,879 Speaker 1: and the pressure and the conditions in which it was formed. 370 00:19:20,040 --> 00:19:22,800 Speaker 1: So it's a really complicated question. Yeah, and I think 371 00:19:22,840 --> 00:19:25,960 Speaker 1: it also depends on like what makes the molecules stick 372 00:19:26,040 --> 00:19:29,080 Speaker 1: together right like an h do. It could be the 373 00:19:29,119 --> 00:19:32,440 Speaker 1: forces between the OHS, for example, what I'm just giving 374 00:19:32,440 --> 00:19:34,560 Speaker 1: out random example, or it could be, you know, the 375 00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:37,960 Speaker 1: forces between the H is and things like that, right exactly, 376 00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:40,600 Speaker 1: and some parts of it are stickier than others, right, 377 00:19:40,720 --> 00:19:43,320 Speaker 1: depending on the energy levels of their electrons. So it's 378 00:19:43,320 --> 00:19:46,400 Speaker 1: something that's not always easy to predict. Sometimes the best 379 00:19:46,440 --> 00:19:48,240 Speaker 1: way to figure it out is just to try. It's 380 00:19:48,280 --> 00:19:50,960 Speaker 1: just to go out and see what happens. So we 381 00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:53,800 Speaker 1: have people whose entire careers are just like mapping out 382 00:19:53,920 --> 00:19:57,560 Speaker 1: the phase diagram of various kinds of materials, understanding what 383 00:19:57,680 --> 00:20:01,080 Speaker 1: it does under certain configurations. Think maybe the takeaway is 384 00:20:01,080 --> 00:20:04,320 Speaker 1: that stuff sticks together in general and there are there 385 00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:06,199 Speaker 1: are many different ways for it to stick together and 386 00:20:06,280 --> 00:20:09,240 Speaker 1: sometimes they stick together in regular patterns, like in a grid, 387 00:20:09,480 --> 00:20:12,640 Speaker 1: and sometimes they just kind of bundle up like randomly, right, 388 00:20:12,800 --> 00:20:16,000 Speaker 1: and that's what a class is and classes is an 389 00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:18,679 Speaker 1: example of this category. You also have like plastics and 390 00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:22,160 Speaker 1: polymers and Thoms and gels. These all follow the same 391 00:20:22,240 --> 00:20:26,880 Speaker 1: kind of structure as glasses. They are amorphous rather than crystalline, right, 392 00:20:26,960 --> 00:20:29,320 Speaker 1: and those are the in the macro scale there are 393 00:20:29,359 --> 00:20:32,240 Speaker 1: morphous materials, kind of like the atom level, right. We're 394 00:20:32,240 --> 00:20:34,800 Speaker 1: not yet at the quantum level. Yeah, these are things 395 00:20:34,880 --> 00:20:37,480 Speaker 1: at the atom level exactly. So then you're saying a 396 00:20:37,560 --> 00:20:41,840 Speaker 1: quantum glass is a material in which stuff is stuck together, 397 00:20:42,040 --> 00:20:45,520 Speaker 1: but Um, it's a morphous in its quantum states. Yeah, 398 00:20:45,600 --> 00:20:47,760 Speaker 1: and I predict you're gonna be pretty unhappy with this 399 00:20:47,840 --> 00:20:50,760 Speaker 1: distinction about what's a quantum state or not, because in 400 00:20:50,800 --> 00:20:53,440 Speaker 1: the end all of these interactions are quantum, like when 401 00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:56,560 Speaker 1: two water molecules touch each other and form part of 402 00:20:56,560 --> 00:20:59,920 Speaker 1: a crystal. That is a quantum interaction between quantum particle. 403 00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:02,760 Speaker 1: But when we talk about quantum glasses, we mean that 404 00:21:02,840 --> 00:21:05,400 Speaker 1: we're adding a new dimension to it, that we're considering 405 00:21:05,480 --> 00:21:09,320 Speaker 1: another quantum property, in this case quantum spin, because we're 406 00:21:09,320 --> 00:21:12,639 Speaker 1: not interested in how the objects ordered themselves in space. 407 00:21:12,800 --> 00:21:15,840 Speaker 1: We're interested in the distribution of these spins. Are the 408 00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:19,440 Speaker 1: spins ordered or are the spins disordered. Well, I guess 409 00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:21,840 Speaker 1: maybe a distinction is that like, for example, for Water 410 00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:24,679 Speaker 1: and ice? I mean you're talking about atoms being in 411 00:21:24,720 --> 00:21:27,560 Speaker 1: a kind of a lattice, right, and atoms themselves don't 412 00:21:27,600 --> 00:21:30,000 Speaker 1: have spin, or you know, don't. Isn't it like the 413 00:21:30,040 --> 00:21:32,359 Speaker 1: electrons and the atoms and the corks and the atoms 414 00:21:32,359 --> 00:21:35,080 Speaker 1: that have spin, not the atom itself? The atoms themselves 415 00:21:35,160 --> 00:21:37,760 Speaker 1: do have an overall spin. It comes from adding up 416 00:21:37,800 --> 00:21:39,919 Speaker 1: the spin of all the bits, the nuclear spin, the 417 00:21:39,960 --> 00:21:43,800 Speaker 1: electron spin, and that's what's important for forming magnets, for example, 418 00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:45,840 Speaker 1: is the spin of the whole atom. It adds up. 419 00:21:45,920 --> 00:21:48,560 Speaker 1: So we do think about the spin of the atom itself, 420 00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:51,119 Speaker 1: not just the electrons inside of it. All right, well, 421 00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:53,960 Speaker 1: let's get more into it and explain what exactly is 422 00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:56,919 Speaker 1: a quantum glass and whether or not we've actually seen 423 00:21:56,960 --> 00:21:59,800 Speaker 1: them and can touch them and maybe use them to 424 00:21:59,840 --> 00:22:02,200 Speaker 1: read quantum books. So let's get into that, but first 425 00:22:02,440 --> 00:22:16,880 Speaker 1: let's take a quick break. All right, we're talking about 426 00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:20,480 Speaker 1: quantum glasses. Are these like x Ray glasses that let 427 00:22:20,480 --> 00:22:23,080 Speaker 1: me see through things? They'll let you see immediately to 428 00:22:23,119 --> 00:22:29,879 Speaker 1: the next big discovery in physics. I wish isn't I 429 00:22:29,960 --> 00:22:33,919 Speaker 1: just called working. What if I could just put on 430 00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:36,080 Speaker 1: quantum glasses and look at my calendar and be like 431 00:22:36,320 --> 00:22:39,439 Speaker 1: that's the day you're gonna make a big discovery, what 432 00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:42,640 Speaker 1: would you do? Would you work harder or less if 433 00:22:42,640 --> 00:22:45,280 Speaker 1: you need you're gonna make a big discovery next week. Well, 434 00:22:45,320 --> 00:22:47,280 Speaker 1: I know that napping is a crucial part of making 435 00:22:47,280 --> 00:22:49,200 Speaker 1: big discovery, so make sure to get that out of 436 00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:51,200 Speaker 1: the way first. Right, right, but would you have more 437 00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:54,040 Speaker 1: or less if you knew your feature? Well, future Daniel 438 00:22:54,080 --> 00:22:57,440 Speaker 1: would have already have seen his future using quantum glasses, 439 00:22:57,880 --> 00:22:59,960 Speaker 1: so that would be accounted for, sort of like Harry 440 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:02,680 Speaker 1: Potter time travel. Right, right, I guess that you're saying 441 00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:05,400 Speaker 1: you don't have any free will. That's right, I'm completely 442 00:23:05,400 --> 00:23:08,040 Speaker 1: determined by my calendar. I just do whatever it says. 443 00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:11,879 Speaker 1: That's right. Your naps are determined by your future self. 444 00:23:11,960 --> 00:23:14,480 Speaker 1: It's not your fault. If I put make huge discovering 445 00:23:14,520 --> 00:23:16,359 Speaker 1: to the calendar, then I have no choice. I have 446 00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:18,760 Speaker 1: to make a huge discovery that day. Right. Yeah, that's 447 00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:20,520 Speaker 1: what I'm saying, but I'm saying like, how would it 448 00:23:20,520 --> 00:23:23,240 Speaker 1: affect your presence choices? I would type that into my calendar. 449 00:23:23,320 --> 00:23:25,920 Speaker 1: A lot of times. But anyways, we're talking about quantum 450 00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:28,560 Speaker 1: glasses and what they are, and we talked about how 451 00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:30,800 Speaker 1: a glass is a material in which all of the 452 00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:34,199 Speaker 1: bits in it are kind of disordered, amorphous, not in 453 00:23:34,320 --> 00:23:37,680 Speaker 1: any kind of grid or structure, and the same can 454 00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:41,160 Speaker 1: be said for quantum materials. That's right. And traditionally, when 455 00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:43,399 Speaker 1: we talk about glasses we talk about disorder in the 456 00:23:43,480 --> 00:23:46,080 Speaker 1: location of the atoms, so if you zoomed in with 457 00:23:46,119 --> 00:23:48,240 Speaker 1: a microscope you would see like a big pile of 458 00:23:48,280 --> 00:23:51,160 Speaker 1: stuff rather than a nice, crisp, organized lattice. And now 459 00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:54,480 Speaker 1: we're talking about something else. We're talking about quantum properties 460 00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:56,919 Speaker 1: of these objects. So you can have something which is 461 00:23:56,920 --> 00:24:00,679 Speaker 1: a nice organized lattice in space, like a grid of 462 00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:03,399 Speaker 1: atoms that are perfectly organized, but it can be a 463 00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:08,879 Speaker 1: quantum glass if their quantum properties are disorganized, if their spin, 464 00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:12,639 Speaker 1: for example, so their magnetic moment is not organized in 465 00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:16,040 Speaker 1: a very nice way. WHOA. So it's almost like something 466 00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:19,520 Speaker 1: you layer on top of other materials. This idea. It's like, 467 00:24:19,760 --> 00:24:23,359 Speaker 1: you know, we have this traditional distinction between glasses and crystals, 468 00:24:23,359 --> 00:24:26,200 Speaker 1: but that is sort of irrelevant here. Right what counts 469 00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:29,000 Speaker 1: is whether or not the quantum states are aligned in 470 00:24:29,040 --> 00:24:32,000 Speaker 1: a pattern or not. Exactly whether it's a quantum glass 471 00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:36,159 Speaker 1: depends on its quantum states, not the spatial locations. And 472 00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:39,480 Speaker 1: here mostly we're talking about things which are physical crystals. 473 00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:43,000 Speaker 1: You know, their atoms are nicely arranged in a grid, 474 00:24:43,320 --> 00:24:46,000 Speaker 1: but the quantum states of those atoms in the grid 475 00:24:46,280 --> 00:24:48,560 Speaker 1: are sort of scrambled. And you know traditionally if you 476 00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:51,520 Speaker 1: have stuff in a grid, the magnetic fields can be 477 00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:54,480 Speaker 1: nicely aligned. So the ferro magnets, for example, is something 478 00:24:54,480 --> 00:24:56,960 Speaker 1: where all the atoms have their spins in the same direction, 479 00:24:57,119 --> 00:25:00,200 Speaker 1: which is what controls their little magnetic moments and all 480 00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:02,600 Speaker 1: adds up to be a big magnet. So if you 481 00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:04,800 Speaker 1: have a fridge magnet for example, like a nice piece 482 00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:07,680 Speaker 1: of iron that's been magnetized, has all of its spins 483 00:25:07,720 --> 00:25:10,720 Speaker 1: in the same direction, they all add up together they 484 00:25:10,720 --> 00:25:13,720 Speaker 1: make like a permanent magnet. That's a ferro magnet. That's 485 00:25:13,760 --> 00:25:16,560 Speaker 1: not a quantum glass because the spins are all nicely 486 00:25:16,720 --> 00:25:20,000 Speaker 1: organized nicely right. That's what a magnet is. Right. Our 487 00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:24,480 Speaker 1: magnet is usually metal crystal where all of the atoms 488 00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:27,720 Speaker 1: in it have the same spin direction, which kind of like, 489 00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:30,520 Speaker 1: I guess, synchronizes them. And makes them add up to 490 00:25:30,680 --> 00:25:33,800 Speaker 1: a giant kind of spin or magnetic pole. Right. And 491 00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:37,000 Speaker 1: one reason that's possible is because the spins like to 492 00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:40,679 Speaker 1: align with each other. In a ferromagnetic material, that's the 493 00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:44,000 Speaker 1: relaxed state, that's the lowest energy states, when the spins 494 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:46,439 Speaker 1: are pointing in the same direction. It likes to be 495 00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:49,879 Speaker 1: that way. There are other kinds of material, like anti ferromagnets, 496 00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:52,879 Speaker 1: where they prefer the spins to be the opposite directions, 497 00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:55,800 Speaker 1: where you want your neighbor to have the opposite spin 498 00:25:55,920 --> 00:25:58,600 Speaker 1: is you, and because of the way these molecules interact 499 00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:01,600 Speaker 1: in their funny shapes and all of their forces between them, 500 00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:04,000 Speaker 1: that happens to be the lowest energy state. That's the 501 00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:07,200 Speaker 1: opposite anti ferromagnet where you have a crystal, but it's 502 00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:10,000 Speaker 1: like spin up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down. 503 00:26:10,119 --> 00:26:15,200 Speaker 1: Both of these are examples of well organized magnetic lattices. Interesting. 504 00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:18,600 Speaker 1: And does that apply only to metals, like magnet metals? 505 00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:21,400 Speaker 1: Like can I take a block of ice and align 506 00:26:21,440 --> 00:26:24,960 Speaker 1: all of the magnetic spins in the atoms of water 507 00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:27,800 Speaker 1: in a block of ice to make it magnetic? You 508 00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:29,800 Speaker 1: can't do that with a block of ice. Now, a 509 00:26:29,800 --> 00:26:33,880 Speaker 1: block of ice is not ferromagnetic and it's also not paramagnetic. 510 00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:37,480 Speaker 1: paramagnetic ar materials that are sort of weakly magnetic and 511 00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:40,080 Speaker 1: if you put them in a magnetic field they will 512 00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:42,920 Speaker 1: eventually align, but then when you take the magnetic field 513 00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:45,680 Speaker 1: away they might lose it. But ice is neither of those. 514 00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:48,560 Speaker 1: Why not? Why can't I just, you know, somehow arrange 515 00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:51,919 Speaker 1: my water molecule so that all the spins are aligned? 516 00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:55,280 Speaker 1: It depends on how the bits of the atom are organized. 517 00:26:55,560 --> 00:26:57,760 Speaker 1: So it depends sort of like on the overall spin 518 00:26:57,920 --> 00:27:00,760 Speaker 1: of the atom. We were talking earlier about having spins 519 00:27:00,760 --> 00:27:03,360 Speaker 1: on the electrons and spins on the Nuclei. If those 520 00:27:03,359 --> 00:27:06,119 Speaker 1: sort of all add up to an overall small amount 521 00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:08,800 Speaker 1: of spin, then there's not really much to play with there. 522 00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:11,359 Speaker 1: But if they come together in a way that makes 523 00:27:11,400 --> 00:27:15,280 Speaker 1: like a large magnetic dipole for the individual atom, then 524 00:27:15,320 --> 00:27:17,480 Speaker 1: you have spins that can get aligned, and so that's 525 00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:19,880 Speaker 1: what sort of what's different between some materials which are 526 00:27:20,119 --> 00:27:23,520 Speaker 1: like ferromagnetic because they can be aligned, and other materials 527 00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:26,000 Speaker 1: that are not. M You're saying like in something like 528 00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:28,680 Speaker 1: a water atom or molecule, all of the electrons and 529 00:27:28,840 --> 00:27:32,919 Speaker 1: all the corks in it are not easily or readily aligned. 530 00:27:32,960 --> 00:27:35,800 Speaker 1: They like to kind of being random positions, which sort 531 00:27:35,800 --> 00:27:39,280 Speaker 1: of castles. There's spin out. Yeah, and some of these materials, 532 00:27:39,320 --> 00:27:42,119 Speaker 1: for example, the electrons want to be opposite spins so 533 00:27:42,119 --> 00:27:44,520 Speaker 1: that they cancel out, and other materials they're set up 534 00:27:44,520 --> 00:27:46,000 Speaker 1: in a way that electrons can all be in the 535 00:27:46,040 --> 00:27:50,159 Speaker 1: same spins. You have an overall spin to the atom 536 00:27:49,440 --> 00:27:52,200 Speaker 1: M and so that's the difference between a material that 537 00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:54,920 Speaker 1: can form a magnet and one that cannot. That's one 538 00:27:54,920 --> 00:27:57,480 Speaker 1: of the differences. This whole thing is very complicated. It's 539 00:27:57,480 --> 00:28:00,520 Speaker 1: difficult to make like broad generalizations, but that's sort of 540 00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:03,280 Speaker 1: like the cartoon picture. Why some things can be magnetic 541 00:28:03,359 --> 00:28:05,879 Speaker 1: and some things cannot. All right, so maybe tell me 542 00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:10,000 Speaker 1: more about these anti ferromagnetic materials. So the anti ferromagnetic 543 00:28:10,040 --> 00:28:12,280 Speaker 1: materials are the ones where they like to be opposite, 544 00:28:12,359 --> 00:28:14,880 Speaker 1: where every neighbor prefers to be the opposite of the other, 545 00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:17,479 Speaker 1: and it just depends on their interactions. Whether that's the 546 00:28:17,520 --> 00:28:20,040 Speaker 1: lowest energy states, so they like to be up against 547 00:28:20,040 --> 00:28:22,479 Speaker 1: each other or whether they like to be aligned with 548 00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:24,120 Speaker 1: each other. They like to be aligned with each other. 549 00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:26,840 Speaker 1: It's a ferromagnet. They like to be opposite with each other. 550 00:28:26,920 --> 00:28:29,720 Speaker 1: It's an anti ferromagnet imagine like a big sheet of 551 00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:32,200 Speaker 1: these atoms. If you want them to be all aligned, 552 00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:34,359 Speaker 1: there's an easy way to do that. You spin them 553 00:28:34,359 --> 00:28:36,640 Speaker 1: all up or spin them all down. Right, you want 554 00:28:36,640 --> 00:28:39,000 Speaker 1: them to be all anti line, there's still a pretty 555 00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:41,600 Speaker 1: easy way to do that. On a square lattice, like 556 00:28:41,680 --> 00:28:44,240 Speaker 1: every other one is up and every other one is down. 557 00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:46,880 Speaker 1: So up, down, up, down, up, down. And you can 558 00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:50,240 Speaker 1: imagine covering an entire plane or even a three d grid, 559 00:28:50,360 --> 00:28:53,479 Speaker 1: where every atom's neighbor has the opposite spin as it 560 00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:56,120 Speaker 1: does right. So if you're up, then you see down 561 00:28:56,280 --> 00:28:58,600 Speaker 1: everywhere around you in the Lattice, and if you're down, 562 00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:00,800 Speaker 1: you see up everywhere around to do in the lattice. 563 00:29:01,160 --> 00:29:04,840 Speaker 1: So there's a way there to make an overall relaxation 564 00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:08,000 Speaker 1: where everybody's in their lowest state and everybody's happy. I 565 00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:10,560 Speaker 1: guess I got a little confused because I think basically, 566 00:29:10,760 --> 00:29:13,479 Speaker 1: like all materials, is kind of a quantum glass, right, 567 00:29:13,520 --> 00:29:16,120 Speaker 1: like isis sort of a quantum glass because it's quantum 568 00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:19,520 Speaker 1: spins are in all kinds of directions. Right, like my 569 00:29:19,560 --> 00:29:21,960 Speaker 1: hand is a quantum glass in that sense of the 570 00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:24,200 Speaker 1: definition of it, I suppose. So ice and an example, 571 00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:27,120 Speaker 1: has sort of negligible quantum spins compared to the kind 572 00:29:27,120 --> 00:29:29,240 Speaker 1: of things we're talking about here. So it's not really 573 00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:31,920 Speaker 1: in the category of things that we're discussing. We're talking 574 00:29:31,960 --> 00:29:34,960 Speaker 1: about materials that do have quantum spins. Do they like 575 00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:37,480 Speaker 1: to be aligned or do they like to be anti aligned? 576 00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:40,800 Speaker 1: And can you make the material in such a way 577 00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:43,000 Speaker 1: that the whole thing is happy overall? The whole thing 578 00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:46,520 Speaker 1: is relaxed into its lowest energy state, either inferro magnets, 579 00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:49,720 Speaker 1: by lining up all the spins or anti ferro magnets 580 00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:52,760 Speaker 1: by flipping all of the spins right. But I think 581 00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:55,720 Speaker 1: you're talking now about like let's post a little challenge 582 00:29:55,720 --> 00:29:58,000 Speaker 1: for ourselves. Let's let's see if we can find material 583 00:29:58,120 --> 00:30:00,800 Speaker 1: that you can arrange in a crystal, in the lattice 584 00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:04,280 Speaker 1: in like a grid, but somehow also make all these 585 00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:08,600 Speaker 1: spins differently or randomly directed. Yeah, so a spin glass 586 00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:11,800 Speaker 1: is a kind of material where the spins can't all relax, 587 00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:16,000 Speaker 1: when you can't find a configuration where everybody's happy. We 588 00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:19,160 Speaker 1: talked a minute ago about anti ferromagnets, where things like 589 00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:21,520 Speaker 1: to be the opposite spin of their neighbor. And that 590 00:30:21,600 --> 00:30:24,360 Speaker 1: works in a square lattice right, where you have like 591 00:30:24,600 --> 00:30:27,440 Speaker 1: a neighbor to both sides and above you and behind 592 00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:29,280 Speaker 1: you and in front of you. What if, for example, 593 00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:32,400 Speaker 1: you have like a triangular lattice instead of a square lattice, 594 00:30:32,800 --> 00:30:35,120 Speaker 1: and so you have like two neighbors? Imagine just points 595 00:30:35,120 --> 00:30:37,880 Speaker 1: on a triangle. You Label one point up, the next 596 00:30:37,880 --> 00:30:40,560 Speaker 1: one down. What's the third point going to be? It 597 00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:42,840 Speaker 1: wants to be down because has one up neighbor and 598 00:30:42,880 --> 00:30:44,880 Speaker 1: it wants to be up because it has one down neighbor. 599 00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:47,200 Speaker 1: So it doesn't know where to go right. It can't 600 00:30:47,240 --> 00:30:50,120 Speaker 1: satisfy both of its neighbors at the same time. Well, 601 00:30:50,160 --> 00:30:52,960 Speaker 1: you're saying, I guess that these anti ferromagnetic I guess 602 00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:56,360 Speaker 1: atoms or molecules. They're sort of like contrarians, like if 603 00:30:56,400 --> 00:30:59,080 Speaker 1: their neighbor is up, they want to go down right 604 00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:00,800 Speaker 1: and if they have two neighbors that are up, then 605 00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:03,560 Speaker 1: they want to go down. I guess two questions. First 606 00:31:03,560 --> 00:31:07,280 Speaker 1: of all, why are they so continuing? Hey, some people 607 00:31:07,360 --> 00:31:09,840 Speaker 1: just can be grumpy and you shouldn't ask too many questions. 608 00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:13,280 Speaker 1: You know, it depends on the complicated interactions between the atoms. 609 00:31:13,320 --> 00:31:15,920 Speaker 1: Atoms are not simple objects. Have a spatial extent and 610 00:31:15,920 --> 00:31:18,960 Speaker 1: they're slashing around. They have all their internal forces. You're 611 00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:21,560 Speaker 1: closer to some bits of it than other bits of it, 612 00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:24,600 Speaker 1: and the spins of these objects interact right and some 613 00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:26,040 Speaker 1: of them like to be spin up and some of 614 00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:28,040 Speaker 1: them like to be spinned down. I guess the short 615 00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:30,840 Speaker 1: answer is that it's really complicated and sometimes it even 616 00:31:30,880 --> 00:31:34,400 Speaker 1: depends on distance. Like if you're close up, then they 617 00:31:34,440 --> 00:31:36,000 Speaker 1: like to have the same spin and as you get 618 00:31:36,040 --> 00:31:38,440 Speaker 1: further away, they like to have the opposite spin, and 619 00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:40,280 Speaker 1: then as you gave them further away, they like to 620 00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:43,240 Speaker 1: be the same spin again. It's really complicated and depends 621 00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:46,000 Speaker 1: on a lot of the details of that exactly. The 622 00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:49,480 Speaker 1: internal arrangements of each atom or molecule, I see. But 623 00:31:49,560 --> 00:31:51,320 Speaker 1: is it, I guess, kind of like a magnet, right, 624 00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:53,320 Speaker 1: like if I have two magnets and they're both, you know, 625 00:31:53,760 --> 00:31:56,360 Speaker 1: have the same North Pole pointed in the same direction, 626 00:31:56,520 --> 00:31:58,840 Speaker 1: like bring them together, like one of them will want 627 00:31:58,840 --> 00:32:01,200 Speaker 1: to flip over so that it's opposite the other one. 628 00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:03,840 Speaker 1: Is that kind of like the good analogy, or maybe 629 00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:05,680 Speaker 1: even the same thing? That's the same thing for the 630 00:32:05,720 --> 00:32:08,400 Speaker 1: Anti Ferro magnets right, except here we're talking about spins, 631 00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:10,920 Speaker 1: but it's very similar. You know, the minimum energy state 632 00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:13,560 Speaker 1: there is for one North Pole to be aligned with 633 00:32:13,600 --> 00:32:16,160 Speaker 1: the other magnets South Pole, and if you try to 634 00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:18,280 Speaker 1: push in the other direction, it's going to take some 635 00:32:18,400 --> 00:32:20,280 Speaker 1: energy to keep it there and if you let go 636 00:32:20,400 --> 00:32:23,240 Speaker 1: it will relax into the configuration where they have the 637 00:32:23,280 --> 00:32:26,000 Speaker 1: opposite directions, where the North Pole and one magnet is 638 00:32:26,040 --> 00:32:28,560 Speaker 1: aligned with the South Pole of other magnets. Okay, so 639 00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:30,120 Speaker 1: now I think what you're saying is, you know, we 640 00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:32,880 Speaker 1: have these materials, these atoms, that are contrarian. They like 641 00:32:32,960 --> 00:32:35,200 Speaker 1: to be opposite the spin of the its neighbors. So 642 00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:38,360 Speaker 1: now what happens? And if I put two up spins 643 00:32:38,480 --> 00:32:40,800 Speaker 1: next to it, it's gonna want to be down spin. 644 00:32:40,920 --> 00:32:42,800 Speaker 1: But what happens if I put an upspin and a 645 00:32:42,880 --> 00:32:45,200 Speaker 1: down spin next to it? It gets you a little confused, right, 646 00:32:45,280 --> 00:32:47,880 Speaker 1: or frustrated? Yeah, exactly, and that's what physicists call it. 647 00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:50,680 Speaker 1: They call it a frustration when you can't arrange the 648 00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:53,320 Speaker 1: spins in a way so the whole thing has minimum 649 00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:56,440 Speaker 1: energy right in a square lattice. Imagine four points on 650 00:32:56,520 --> 00:32:58,960 Speaker 1: a square could have like the top left to be up, 651 00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:01,040 Speaker 1: on the bottom right be up and the other two 652 00:33:01,080 --> 00:33:03,959 Speaker 1: points be down and everybody's happy because all the downs 653 00:33:03,960 --> 00:33:05,960 Speaker 1: have only up neighbors and all the ups have only 654 00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:09,720 Speaker 1: down neighbors. But in a triangular lattice you can't do that. Right. 655 00:33:09,760 --> 00:33:12,120 Speaker 1: The third point has one up neighbor and one down 656 00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:15,280 Speaker 1: neighbor and it can't decide which way to go. There's 657 00:33:15,280 --> 00:33:18,000 Speaker 1: two possible states there that have the same energy and 658 00:33:18,120 --> 00:33:20,480 Speaker 1: neither of them are like the minimum energy right. It's 659 00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:22,720 Speaker 1: like having a conversation between three people and one of 660 00:33:22,720 --> 00:33:24,600 Speaker 1: them is the contrarian. What happens that? When are the 661 00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:26,480 Speaker 1: other people agrees with them, but the only one does not? 662 00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:29,760 Speaker 1: What does the contrarian do? Exactly who to disagree with? 663 00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:35,480 Speaker 1: And so this is what a spin glass is, because 664 00:33:35,520 --> 00:33:38,160 Speaker 1: the spins end up sort of like disorganized. It's not 665 00:33:38,200 --> 00:33:39,880 Speaker 1: like a Pharo magnet where they're all pointing in the 666 00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:42,400 Speaker 1: same way, or an anti Faro Mac in a square 667 00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:45,320 Speaker 1: crystal where they're all pointing opposite directions. It's kind of 668 00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:49,160 Speaker 1: a disaster, right. So like tense, it's frustrated, it can't 669 00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:52,240 Speaker 1: quite relax, and so where the spins end up is 670 00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:55,960 Speaker 1: a little bit random. Interesting. So you're saying the part 671 00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:58,959 Speaker 1: of the definition of what a quantum glass is is 672 00:33:59,040 --> 00:34:01,280 Speaker 1: that kind of frust rate Shan built it into it. 673 00:34:01,840 --> 00:34:04,600 Speaker 1: Like if I build the lattice with contrarian atoms and 674 00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:08,000 Speaker 1: everyone's contrary to their neighbor, then it's and everyone's happy. 675 00:34:08,080 --> 00:34:10,600 Speaker 1: Then that's not a quantum glass. Right, exactly. That's just 676 00:34:10,640 --> 00:34:14,200 Speaker 1: a normal anti ferromagnetic crystal. But if you can somehow 677 00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:17,839 Speaker 1: frustrate the atoms, then you have a quantum glass, because 678 00:34:17,880 --> 00:34:21,720 Speaker 1: I guess everyone's frustrated and what constantly flipping back and forth? 679 00:34:22,080 --> 00:34:24,400 Speaker 1: Is that kind of what happens? Yeah, everyone's frustrated, it 680 00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:28,000 Speaker 1: can't find the minimum and it has new weird properties. 681 00:34:28,080 --> 00:34:29,920 Speaker 1: So when we talk about a phase transition, there has 682 00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:32,640 Speaker 1: to be like a change and how the material operates 683 00:34:32,719 --> 00:34:34,879 Speaker 1: in one of its properties. Right, we don't say that 684 00:34:35,040 --> 00:34:38,000 Speaker 1: cold water and hot water are different phases, even though 685 00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:41,520 Speaker 1: they are chemically different, because there's no like large change 686 00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:44,880 Speaker 1: in its macroscopic behavior. So for years or even decades, 687 00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:47,719 Speaker 1: there was an argument about whether spin glasses really are 688 00:34:47,840 --> 00:34:50,560 Speaker 1: their own phase of matter. And the people who say 689 00:34:50,600 --> 00:34:52,799 Speaker 1: that it is its own phase of matter. They argue 690 00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:56,319 Speaker 1: that it's unique because it has weird relaxation times. Like 691 00:34:56,440 --> 00:34:59,520 Speaker 1: if you take a ferromagnet or an anti ferromagnet and 692 00:34:59,560 --> 00:35:01,680 Speaker 1: you apply really strong magnetic field and you sort of 693 00:35:01,719 --> 00:35:04,680 Speaker 1: mess up the spins, it will relax pretty quickly when 694 00:35:04,719 --> 00:35:07,520 Speaker 1: you take away the magnetic field. But a spin glass, 695 00:35:07,640 --> 00:35:09,880 Speaker 1: if you do that, it will react really differently. It 696 00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:12,640 Speaker 1: will take like forever to relax and it will never 697 00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:15,279 Speaker 1: come back to its original position. So people argue that 698 00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:18,600 Speaker 1: that's enough of a different macro's copic property to be 699 00:35:18,640 --> 00:35:21,239 Speaker 1: its own kind of thing. What do you mean? It 700 00:35:21,239 --> 00:35:23,880 Speaker 1: takes a while, like the items keep switching back and 701 00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:27,680 Speaker 1: forth or what? There's like turmoil inside of the material. Yeah, 702 00:35:27,719 --> 00:35:30,680 Speaker 1: they have like decision paralysis. You know, it's like if 703 00:35:30,760 --> 00:35:33,000 Speaker 1: you go to the cookie aisle and there's like a 704 00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:37,000 Speaker 1: thousand cookies and your shopping list just says cookie. You're like, Oh, 705 00:35:37,040 --> 00:35:38,839 Speaker 1: do I get Oreos? Do I get chips of oil? 706 00:35:39,040 --> 00:35:41,520 Speaker 1: Look at those fudge ones. Oh No, I can't decide 707 00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:44,279 Speaker 1: what I want and they all seem equally good. You 708 00:35:44,280 --> 00:35:47,520 Speaker 1: could spend hours there wandering around switching, you know, taking 709 00:35:47,520 --> 00:35:49,719 Speaker 1: stuff in and out of your basket, not sure what 710 00:35:49,880 --> 00:35:52,480 Speaker 1: to actually buy, and so spin glasses are sort of 711 00:35:52,520 --> 00:35:55,560 Speaker 1: like this. If you perturb them, you give them magnetic energy, 712 00:35:55,600 --> 00:35:56,920 Speaker 1: you put them in the magnetic field and then you 713 00:35:56,960 --> 00:35:59,480 Speaker 1: take it away, they take a long time sort of 714 00:35:59,480 --> 00:36:02,640 Speaker 1: slashing back and forth spins, flipping and then flipping other spins. 715 00:36:02,840 --> 00:36:06,160 Speaker 1: They can't find a comfortable situation to relax in M 716 00:36:06,719 --> 00:36:09,359 Speaker 1: but I guess it isn't spin a quantum property, meaning 717 00:36:09,520 --> 00:36:13,080 Speaker 1: like each atom has a spin that's both up and down, 718 00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:15,719 Speaker 1: like they went in a particular direction? Wouldn't that sort 719 00:36:15,719 --> 00:36:18,440 Speaker 1: of collapse the wave function of that quantum state? Yeah, 720 00:36:18,520 --> 00:36:21,960 Speaker 1: really interesting question. It's true that spin is a quantum property, 721 00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:24,520 Speaker 1: which means both that it can either be up or down, 722 00:36:24,520 --> 00:36:26,799 Speaker 1: but not like in between. Right when you measure these 723 00:36:26,840 --> 00:36:30,080 Speaker 1: things either get up or down, but it means that 724 00:36:30,200 --> 00:36:33,560 Speaker 1: until you measure it, it's not necessarily determined. So what 725 00:36:33,680 --> 00:36:35,480 Speaker 1: that means is that the whole thing has like a 726 00:36:35,520 --> 00:36:38,359 Speaker 1: few different quantum states that are all possible. We're talking 727 00:36:38,360 --> 00:36:40,160 Speaker 1: about is what happens when you measure it right. So 728 00:36:40,200 --> 00:36:42,319 Speaker 1: you probe this thing. You ask like what's the spin 729 00:36:42,320 --> 00:36:44,000 Speaker 1: over here? What's the spin over here? What's the spin 730 00:36:44,040 --> 00:36:46,239 Speaker 1: over here? And you're right, that will collapse the wave 731 00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:48,600 Speaker 1: function so that everybody's going to make a decision, but 732 00:36:48,719 --> 00:36:50,840 Speaker 1: you come back another minute later and it's made a 733 00:36:50,840 --> 00:36:53,160 Speaker 1: different decision. You come back another minute later it's made 734 00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:55,960 Speaker 1: another decision. So you never really see it settle and 735 00:36:55,960 --> 00:36:58,719 Speaker 1: relax into a fixed state. Right. So when you're talking 736 00:36:58,760 --> 00:37:02,120 Speaker 1: about like this termoil, all the all the contrarians can 737 00:37:02,280 --> 00:37:05,080 Speaker 1: not being able to decide which way they're being contrring about. 738 00:37:05,200 --> 00:37:07,440 Speaker 1: It's more of like a quantum turmol right, like it's 739 00:37:07,440 --> 00:37:10,600 Speaker 1: not actually flipping back and forth and it's not like 740 00:37:10,640 --> 00:37:12,719 Speaker 1: you're at the cookie as'le trying to decide. It's like 741 00:37:13,080 --> 00:37:15,600 Speaker 1: you're sort of in this state where you're you're decided 742 00:37:15,640 --> 00:37:18,360 Speaker 1: and not decided. No, I think it really is decided 743 00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:20,600 Speaker 1: or not decided. I mean you can take pictures of 744 00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:24,920 Speaker 1: these things essentially using like skinning, tunneling, microscopy or otherways 745 00:37:24,920 --> 00:37:27,000 Speaker 1: to probe the magnetic field. So you can collapse these 746 00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:29,880 Speaker 1: wave functions and you can see them evolve over time. 747 00:37:29,960 --> 00:37:32,120 Speaker 1: So you can see these things really are flipping or 748 00:37:32,160 --> 00:37:34,719 Speaker 1: it's not like once you've collapsed the way function, then 749 00:37:34,719 --> 00:37:37,040 Speaker 1: it's happy and it's going to stay there. You can 750 00:37:37,080 --> 00:37:39,120 Speaker 1: collapse the way function, you can come back and collapse 751 00:37:39,120 --> 00:37:41,680 Speaker 1: it again and then again and again, you can see 752 00:37:41,680 --> 00:37:44,560 Speaker 1: that they're flipping their spins. So that's the interesting property 753 00:37:44,560 --> 00:37:47,240 Speaker 1: about spin glasses is that they have these really long 754 00:37:47,360 --> 00:37:51,960 Speaker 1: relaxation times. They're basically never in equilibrium. You know, another 755 00:37:51,960 --> 00:37:53,839 Speaker 1: way to think about it is like say you sit 756 00:37:53,880 --> 00:37:56,479 Speaker 1: down at a really long banquet table and there's silvil 757 00:37:56,560 --> 00:37:58,279 Speaker 1: ware to your left and to your right. Do you 758 00:37:58,360 --> 00:37:59,960 Speaker 1: take the one to your left or do you take 759 00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:02,480 Speaker 1: the one to your right? You know, if everybody takes 760 00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:04,279 Speaker 1: through to the left, everybody is happy. If everybody takes 761 00:38:04,360 --> 00:38:07,279 Speaker 1: their right, everybody's happy. People are arguing. You know, no, 762 00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:09,759 Speaker 1: that one's mine, that one's mine. Then you know you 763 00:38:09,800 --> 00:38:13,440 Speaker 1: can't really settle into a comfortable state. So spin glasses 764 00:38:13,440 --> 00:38:15,880 Speaker 1: are situations where, like, people can't agree about what the 765 00:38:15,960 --> 00:38:20,560 Speaker 1: rules are and so everybody's just taking whatever silverware. Well then, 766 00:38:20,600 --> 00:38:23,040 Speaker 1: you say, eventually it settles down. And so what is 767 00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:26,960 Speaker 1: it settled down into? Salad forks or main course for 768 00:38:27,440 --> 00:38:29,520 Speaker 1: that's the interesting thing about spin glasses is that it's 769 00:38:29,640 --> 00:38:32,239 Speaker 1: very hard to predict. You know, when we try to 770 00:38:32,360 --> 00:38:35,799 Speaker 1: understand the macroscopic properties of these things, we do so 771 00:38:35,880 --> 00:38:39,000 Speaker 1: by starting from the microscopic we say, okay, crystal is 772 00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:41,520 Speaker 1: made of these little bits, and then we expand our 773 00:38:41,640 --> 00:38:44,440 Speaker 1: understanding from that basis, stacking them together to make the 774 00:38:44,520 --> 00:38:48,280 Speaker 1: macroscopic properties. That's really hard to do with spin glasses 775 00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:53,160 Speaker 1: because they're so crazy and unpredictable. They're basically never in equilibrium. 776 00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:55,759 Speaker 1: So a lot of the mathematical tricks that we use 777 00:38:55,840 --> 00:38:59,640 Speaker 1: to understand crystals don't really work for spin glasses, which 778 00:38:59,680 --> 00:39:03,160 Speaker 1: lad to like invention of whole new categories of mathematics. 779 00:39:03,560 --> 00:39:07,080 Speaker 1: M interesting. All right. Well, let's get into those new 780 00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:10,520 Speaker 1: categories of maths and what these materials are good for 781 00:39:10,640 --> 00:39:13,160 Speaker 1: and what we can learn from them. But first let's 782 00:39:13,160 --> 00:39:29,080 Speaker 1: take another quick break. All right, we're talking about quantum glasses, 783 00:39:29,239 --> 00:39:31,520 Speaker 1: which is one of our listeners said, is where you 784 00:39:31,600 --> 00:39:36,359 Speaker 1: take shots of quantum whiskey or Tequila, one electron at 785 00:39:36,360 --> 00:39:42,560 Speaker 1: a time. Man, it's quantized. I'll take forever to get drunk. Danny. 786 00:39:44,239 --> 00:39:47,399 Speaker 1: That's the point, man, moderation in all things. Let See, 787 00:39:47,400 --> 00:39:50,319 Speaker 1: one atom at a time. Alright. So it sounds like 788 00:39:50,880 --> 00:39:53,440 Speaker 1: there are materials you can put together in a crystal 789 00:39:53,680 --> 00:39:56,920 Speaker 1: that are unhappy basically at their core, because all of 790 00:39:56,920 --> 00:40:00,120 Speaker 1: the atoms can't find a good arrangement of their want 791 00:40:00,120 --> 00:40:03,040 Speaker 1: them spin the everyone is sort of in this state 792 00:40:03,040 --> 00:40:04,919 Speaker 1: where they don't know whether to go up or down 793 00:40:04,920 --> 00:40:06,920 Speaker 1: in their spin, and so you create a material with 794 00:40:06,960 --> 00:40:09,960 Speaker 1: a lot of frustration in it exactly. And a lot 795 00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:12,200 Speaker 1: of these spin glasses are not just like one kind 796 00:40:12,239 --> 00:40:15,040 Speaker 1: of material and a lattice where they're all contrarians and 797 00:40:15,080 --> 00:40:16,760 Speaker 1: it's arranged in a way where they can't be happy. 798 00:40:16,880 --> 00:40:19,480 Speaker 1: A lot of the Times it's a few examples of 799 00:40:19,560 --> 00:40:23,160 Speaker 1: something that is magnetic inside a larger crystal. So you'll 800 00:40:23,200 --> 00:40:26,880 Speaker 1: have like a non magnetic material like gold or silver copper, 801 00:40:27,120 --> 00:40:31,360 Speaker 1: and you sprinkle into it a few percent of magnetic atoms, 802 00:40:31,400 --> 00:40:34,280 Speaker 1: iron or something else, and because of their interactions depend 803 00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:36,279 Speaker 1: on the distance, whether they like they have the same 804 00:40:36,320 --> 00:40:38,720 Speaker 1: spin or the opposite spin depends on how far apart 805 00:40:38,760 --> 00:40:41,440 Speaker 1: they are. You can end up with these disordered spins. 806 00:40:41,880 --> 00:40:44,880 Speaker 1: You're saying. That's how you make a quantum glass. You 807 00:40:44,960 --> 00:40:48,880 Speaker 1: embed magnetic atoms into a regular metal exactly, and then 808 00:40:48,880 --> 00:40:50,719 Speaker 1: you cool it down and you see, like how are 809 00:40:50,760 --> 00:40:54,080 Speaker 1: they frozen in interesting you like you bake in the 810 00:40:54,120 --> 00:40:58,360 Speaker 1: frustration of the magnetic atoms. You freeze it in. Yeah, exactly. 811 00:40:58,440 --> 00:41:00,279 Speaker 1: All right. Well, I guess a good question for me 812 00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:03,920 Speaker 1: is what are these materials good for or why are 813 00:41:03,920 --> 00:41:06,399 Speaker 1: we interested in them? So these things don't have like 814 00:41:06,440 --> 00:41:10,440 Speaker 1: an immediate practical application, if not, like with spin glasses, 815 00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:13,640 Speaker 1: you can make quantum computers or you can build a 816 00:41:13,640 --> 00:41:16,480 Speaker 1: better transistor or you can take tiny shots of hot 817 00:41:16,480 --> 00:41:19,799 Speaker 1: cocoa or something like that. There's no immediate application, but 818 00:41:19,880 --> 00:41:23,080 Speaker 1: it's an interesting and tricky problem and so people have 819 00:41:23,080 --> 00:41:25,799 Speaker 1: been thinking about it and, you know, sweating over it 820 00:41:25,840 --> 00:41:28,399 Speaker 1: and trying to figure out like can we describe these 821 00:41:28,440 --> 00:41:31,640 Speaker 1: things mathematically? Is there some way to figure this out? 822 00:41:31,719 --> 00:41:33,480 Speaker 1: To me, this is one of the deep questions of 823 00:41:33,520 --> 00:41:36,319 Speaker 1: physics itself, you know, because again, since we don't have 824 00:41:36,360 --> 00:41:38,840 Speaker 1: the fundamental theory of everything, all of the theories that 825 00:41:38,880 --> 00:41:42,440 Speaker 1: we develop are what we call effective theories. They're like 826 00:41:42,600 --> 00:41:46,640 Speaker 1: mathematical stories that we tell that describe the things that 827 00:41:46,719 --> 00:41:49,560 Speaker 1: we see, but they're not like written into the fundamental 828 00:41:49,600 --> 00:41:53,239 Speaker 1: firmament of the universe. You know, aliens, for example, might 829 00:41:53,280 --> 00:41:55,440 Speaker 1: not come up with these same effective theories. They're just 830 00:41:55,440 --> 00:41:58,759 Speaker 1: sort of useful descriptions, but it's incredible we can find them, 831 00:41:58,760 --> 00:42:01,319 Speaker 1: but sometimes they're harder to find than others. You know, 832 00:42:01,400 --> 00:42:04,600 Speaker 1: for Solids and for liquids we have found mathematical descriptions 833 00:42:04,640 --> 00:42:07,520 Speaker 1: that are useful. For Spin glasses, it's been much, much 834 00:42:07,560 --> 00:42:11,960 Speaker 1: harder because their interactions are more complicated and less regular, 835 00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:14,200 Speaker 1: but it's inspired people to come up with all sorts 836 00:42:14,239 --> 00:42:17,120 Speaker 1: of new mathematical tricks, one of which people think is 837 00:42:17,120 --> 00:42:20,840 Speaker 1: the reason why we discovered the Higgs Boson. I guess 838 00:42:20,840 --> 00:42:22,919 Speaker 1: maybe a step us through that a little bit more. 839 00:42:23,080 --> 00:42:25,160 Speaker 1: What does that mean? Like we have an effective theory 840 00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:27,879 Speaker 1: to describe like a regular magnet. Is that what you're saying? 841 00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:30,760 Speaker 1: We have like a mathematical way to study the model 842 00:42:30,840 --> 00:42:33,719 Speaker 1: how regular magnet works, but you're saying we don't have 843 00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:37,760 Speaker 1: one yet for these crazy, frustrated materials. We've been working 844 00:42:37,760 --> 00:42:39,799 Speaker 1: on we've been making progress. I mean by we I 845 00:42:39,800 --> 00:42:43,279 Speaker 1: mean all the other physicists. We're not goofing off making podcasts. We, 846 00:42:43,440 --> 00:42:46,279 Speaker 1: you know, as the general group of humans thinking about 847 00:42:46,320 --> 00:42:48,120 Speaker 1: these kinds of things, have been working on this for 848 00:42:48,120 --> 00:42:50,200 Speaker 1: a long time and I think it's always interesting when 849 00:42:50,200 --> 00:42:53,040 Speaker 1: it requires a new kind of math. And so there's 850 00:42:53,040 --> 00:42:55,960 Speaker 1: an Italian physicist Parisi who won the Nobel Prize for 851 00:42:56,000 --> 00:42:59,200 Speaker 1: this in twenty one, because he came up with a 852 00:42:59,239 --> 00:43:03,400 Speaker 1: new sort of math, thematical strategy for dealing with this complication. 853 00:43:03,560 --> 00:43:05,960 Speaker 1: You know, one of the real problems is that these 854 00:43:05,960 --> 00:43:08,960 Speaker 1: things can arrange themselves in lots of different ways and 855 00:43:09,080 --> 00:43:10,840 Speaker 1: when you poke them, you know, you give them a 856 00:43:10,880 --> 00:43:13,120 Speaker 1: little bit more magnetic energy. So you scramble all the 857 00:43:13,160 --> 00:43:16,160 Speaker 1: spins and you watch them relax. You wonder, like why 858 00:43:16,200 --> 00:43:18,839 Speaker 1: does it land in this configuration and not that one? 859 00:43:18,880 --> 00:43:20,440 Speaker 1: Can we predict this kind of thing? Can we come 860 00:43:20,480 --> 00:43:23,319 Speaker 1: up with some sort of mathematical way to grapple with 861 00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:26,480 Speaker 1: this and predict what's going to happen? You can't be 862 00:43:26,520 --> 00:43:28,560 Speaker 1: completely random. And I guess what do you mean by 863 00:43:28,560 --> 00:43:30,680 Speaker 1: a new kind of math, like a new kind of 864 00:43:30,719 --> 00:43:33,600 Speaker 1: like adding quantum to old math, or what does that mean? 865 00:43:33,680 --> 00:43:36,440 Speaker 1: The Way Mathematics bakes progress is that sometimes they need 866 00:43:36,480 --> 00:43:38,759 Speaker 1: to develop like a new kind of tool, you know, 867 00:43:38,840 --> 00:43:42,400 Speaker 1: like they find differential equations and here's strategies for solving 868 00:43:42,400 --> 00:43:44,920 Speaker 1: that kind of problem, or here's Algebra, you know, like 869 00:43:44,960 --> 00:43:47,399 Speaker 1: the people who figured out how to write equations down 870 00:43:47,440 --> 00:43:50,239 Speaker 1: and solve them to get understanding. We're able to solve 871 00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:53,440 Speaker 1: certain problems that other people couldn't. And, for example, descartes 872 00:43:53,520 --> 00:43:56,120 Speaker 1: made a lot of advances in geometry because he would 873 00:43:56,200 --> 00:43:59,680 Speaker 1: able to figure out how to use Algebra to tackle geometry. 874 00:43:59,719 --> 00:44:02,360 Speaker 1: Like if you could write down the equation of a circle, 875 00:44:02,520 --> 00:44:06,360 Speaker 1: then you could solve systems of equations and understand geometric patterns. 876 00:44:06,440 --> 00:44:09,279 Speaker 1: So here they've done something similar. They've invented to like 877 00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:13,360 Speaker 1: new mathematical tools, and these mathematical tools are really thinking 878 00:44:13,360 --> 00:44:16,880 Speaker 1: about the symmetry of the problem. Like you have this huge, 879 00:44:16,960 --> 00:44:20,000 Speaker 1: complex tree of options that a spin glass can do. 880 00:44:20,080 --> 00:44:21,600 Speaker 1: We can splip this way, you can flip that way, 881 00:44:21,640 --> 00:44:23,440 Speaker 1: you can flip the other way. So what Paris he 882 00:44:23,520 --> 00:44:25,520 Speaker 1: did was come up with a way to think about 883 00:44:25,560 --> 00:44:28,239 Speaker 1: this in sort of the larger context, like don't just 884 00:44:28,280 --> 00:44:31,000 Speaker 1: think about the one spin glass you have, think about 885 00:44:31,040 --> 00:44:33,600 Speaker 1: all the other spin glasses and you don't have like 886 00:44:33,960 --> 00:44:37,319 Speaker 1: replicas of that system and try to organize them into 887 00:44:37,360 --> 00:44:39,800 Speaker 1: like branches. So like, Oh, these guys are all similar 888 00:44:39,840 --> 00:44:42,000 Speaker 1: in this way, those guys are all similar in these 889 00:44:42,040 --> 00:44:44,880 Speaker 1: other way. Think about like the choices that were made 890 00:44:44,920 --> 00:44:48,200 Speaker 1: to get to this spin glass from the higher energy 891 00:44:48,280 --> 00:44:51,000 Speaker 1: spin glass, and he found these ways to like organize 892 00:44:51,040 --> 00:44:54,520 Speaker 1: these and use symmetries to like break down the problem 893 00:44:54,760 --> 00:44:58,520 Speaker 1: into smaller pieces, to organize this complexity, and that helped 894 00:44:58,520 --> 00:45:01,520 Speaker 1: to make sort of like approximate statements about which kinds 895 00:45:01,560 --> 00:45:04,600 Speaker 1: of spin glass final states were more likely than others, 896 00:45:04,960 --> 00:45:07,239 Speaker 1: like if you started here, you're likely to get to 897 00:45:07,600 --> 00:45:10,040 Speaker 1: neighboring final states where you weren't going to make a 898 00:45:10,080 --> 00:45:12,239 Speaker 1: big jump to something all the way on the other 899 00:45:12,320 --> 00:45:15,360 Speaker 1: side of the sort of symmetry organized set of states. 900 00:45:16,360 --> 00:45:19,200 Speaker 1: And you're talking about math that sort of analyzes one 901 00:45:19,239 --> 00:45:21,440 Speaker 1: of these grids right like you're looking at a grid 902 00:45:21,600 --> 00:45:24,879 Speaker 1: of these atoms, these frustrated atoms, together, and you're trying 903 00:45:24,920 --> 00:45:26,680 Speaker 1: to figure out, like, you know, are they all gonna 904 00:45:27,239 --> 00:45:28,799 Speaker 1: go up or down, or is they are they going 905 00:45:28,880 --> 00:45:31,320 Speaker 1: to alternate or are they gonna you know, how often 906 00:45:31,400 --> 00:45:34,240 Speaker 1: are you going to run into an up spin atom? 907 00:45:34,360 --> 00:45:37,280 Speaker 1: And you're wondering, if I poke this thing, how likely 908 00:45:37,440 --> 00:45:40,680 Speaker 1: is it to change to another configuration, or how likely 909 00:45:40,760 --> 00:45:42,360 Speaker 1: is it, after I've poked it, to come back to 910 00:45:42,440 --> 00:45:45,239 Speaker 1: this configuration? or how many spins are going to be 911 00:45:45,239 --> 00:45:47,360 Speaker 1: flipped after I poke it? Is it going to be 912 00:45:47,400 --> 00:45:49,880 Speaker 1: every single thing is flipped, or just a fraction of 913 00:45:49,920 --> 00:45:52,040 Speaker 1: you or flipped. So those the kind of questions people 914 00:45:52,080 --> 00:45:54,359 Speaker 1: are interested in, just like what are the behaviors of 915 00:45:54,400 --> 00:45:57,040 Speaker 1: these things? So press math gave us sort of like 916 00:45:57,080 --> 00:46:00,840 Speaker 1: a map for all those different configurations. He said like okay, 917 00:46:00,880 --> 00:46:03,040 Speaker 1: this configuration of the spin glass, you can put it 918 00:46:03,120 --> 00:46:04,960 Speaker 1: here on the map, and he was able to sort 919 00:46:04,960 --> 00:46:07,880 Speaker 1: of organize and create this idea of a distance between 920 00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:11,040 Speaker 1: one spin configuration and another. This distance is sort of 921 00:46:11,040 --> 00:46:14,640 Speaker 1: a mathematical way to calculate like how many spins are 922 00:46:14,680 --> 00:46:17,480 Speaker 1: similar or not, and he was able to organize it 923 00:46:17,480 --> 00:46:18,920 Speaker 1: in such a way that he showed that if you 924 00:46:18,960 --> 00:46:21,480 Speaker 1: poke this thing was more likely to end up in 925 00:46:21,520 --> 00:46:25,440 Speaker 1: a nearby configuration than a distant one, where the distance 926 00:46:25,480 --> 00:46:29,359 Speaker 1: here is something that he defined his strategy for organizing 927 00:46:29,560 --> 00:46:32,799 Speaker 1: these different configurations. So there is a pretty interesting kind 928 00:46:32,800 --> 00:46:34,640 Speaker 1: of material. I guess kind of to go back a 929 00:46:34,640 --> 00:46:37,000 Speaker 1: little bit to my earlier question is, you know, like 930 00:46:37,080 --> 00:46:39,360 Speaker 1: let's say I make a piece of quantum glass and 931 00:46:39,360 --> 00:46:42,719 Speaker 1: it has these interesting mathematical properties. What could I do 932 00:46:42,719 --> 00:46:45,239 Speaker 1: with it? Can I like make actual glasses out of 933 00:46:45,280 --> 00:46:47,759 Speaker 1: this glass? What would happen if I see through it? 934 00:46:48,000 --> 00:46:50,520 Speaker 1: Only if you can see through solid gold or silver 935 00:46:50,719 --> 00:46:53,160 Speaker 1: or copper. You know, there's not anything that I'm aware 936 00:46:53,239 --> 00:46:55,280 Speaker 1: that you can like do with it in your life 937 00:46:55,280 --> 00:46:59,319 Speaker 1: other than impress your physicist friends, which you know, has 938 00:46:59,360 --> 00:47:01,320 Speaker 1: its own inherent value. I mean it is sort of 939 00:47:01,360 --> 00:47:03,359 Speaker 1: a quantum object, isn't it? At the end of the day, 940 00:47:03,680 --> 00:47:06,400 Speaker 1: this glass is a quantum object. Could you do quantum 941 00:47:06,520 --> 00:47:09,359 Speaker 1: things with it? Or computation for a bit? Possibly? I'm 942 00:47:09,360 --> 00:47:12,680 Speaker 1: not aware of any applications for quantum computing. But I 943 00:47:12,719 --> 00:47:14,719 Speaker 1: think with the most interesting thing is just the math 944 00:47:14,800 --> 00:47:16,720 Speaker 1: that it makes us think about. It made these guys 945 00:47:16,760 --> 00:47:20,040 Speaker 1: think about symmetries and patterns in new ways and come 946 00:47:20,120 --> 00:47:23,480 Speaker 1: up with new mathematical tools. And whenever we develop new 947 00:47:23,480 --> 00:47:26,480 Speaker 1: mathematical tools we always find out that they're useful in 948 00:47:26,600 --> 00:47:29,479 Speaker 1: other places. So people have been thinking about these kinds 949 00:47:29,480 --> 00:47:32,719 Speaker 1: of symmetries and crystals for decades and decades in the 950 00:47:32,760 --> 00:47:35,680 Speaker 1: field we called condensed matter, the study of, you know, 951 00:47:36,040 --> 00:47:39,680 Speaker 1: dense objects like crystals, and because of that Mathematical Foundation 952 00:47:39,760 --> 00:47:43,359 Speaker 1: laying in condensed matter there's a lot of work on symmetries, 953 00:47:43,680 --> 00:47:46,279 Speaker 1: a lot of which informed Peter Higgs when he was 954 00:47:46,320 --> 00:47:48,640 Speaker 1: thinking about why particles get mass. He came up with 955 00:47:48,680 --> 00:47:51,920 Speaker 1: this idea of another field in the universe that imparts 956 00:47:51,960 --> 00:47:54,520 Speaker 1: the mass. But this field has to be really weird 957 00:47:54,600 --> 00:47:57,480 Speaker 1: and different from any other field he had seen before. 958 00:47:57,640 --> 00:48:00,200 Speaker 1: It would have to settle and relax into an on 959 00:48:00,560 --> 00:48:03,120 Speaker 1: minimum energy state. As we've talked about in the program 960 00:48:03,200 --> 00:48:05,440 Speaker 1: a lot of times. The Higgs field has some weird 961 00:48:05,600 --> 00:48:08,600 Speaker 1: energy bound into it. It can't relax to its lowest 962 00:48:08,719 --> 00:48:12,640 Speaker 1: energy state. It relaxed to this weird intermediate state, and 963 00:48:12,680 --> 00:48:15,200 Speaker 1: so thinking about the symmetry of that problem helped him 964 00:48:15,239 --> 00:48:17,800 Speaker 1: think about the symmetries and the broken symmetries of the 965 00:48:17,880 --> 00:48:21,600 Speaker 1: Higgs field and really inspired that Whole Direction of mathematics 966 00:48:21,880 --> 00:48:25,560 Speaker 1: and particle physics. And that kind of worked out right 967 00:48:25,600 --> 00:48:29,359 Speaker 1: for Peter Higgs and the press of humanity. But Peter 968 00:48:29,440 --> 00:48:33,480 Speaker 1: Higgs didn't know about these quantum glass is right. You're 969 00:48:33,520 --> 00:48:35,520 Speaker 1: just saying that they sort of use the same kind 970 00:48:35,560 --> 00:48:37,799 Speaker 1: of math and that's why it could be important. That's right. 971 00:48:37,840 --> 00:48:41,040 Speaker 1: Quantum glasses weren't well understood when he was talking about 972 00:48:41,040 --> 00:48:42,640 Speaker 1: this kind of stuff and he was thinking about it. 973 00:48:42,840 --> 00:48:47,560 Speaker 1: But the mathematics that underlie condensed matter and understanding these 974 00:48:47,560 --> 00:48:51,400 Speaker 1: symmetries led to both a deeper understanding of quantum glasses 975 00:48:51,520 --> 00:48:54,319 Speaker 1: and of symmetry breaking and the Higgs field. Well, it's 976 00:48:54,360 --> 00:48:56,600 Speaker 1: interesting that there is a connection, right. I mean there's 977 00:48:56,600 --> 00:48:59,360 Speaker 1: a connection between the such a fundamental particle in the 978 00:48:59,400 --> 00:49:02,399 Speaker 1: universe and maybe all particles and what happens at these 979 00:49:02,480 --> 00:49:05,960 Speaker 1: kind of microscopic levels. Right, maybe the idea that the 980 00:49:06,040 --> 00:49:08,400 Speaker 1: universe is there's a lot about symmetry in the universe. 981 00:49:08,440 --> 00:49:10,239 Speaker 1: There is a lot about symmetry in the universe and 982 00:49:10,280 --> 00:49:13,560 Speaker 1: also about these emergent phenomena. We've talked several times in 983 00:49:13,600 --> 00:49:16,960 Speaker 1: the podcast about things we call quasi particles. These are 984 00:49:17,320 --> 00:49:20,279 Speaker 1: weird materials that have states in them that looks sort 985 00:49:20,280 --> 00:49:23,480 Speaker 1: of like particles that act sort of like particles, you know, 986 00:49:23,520 --> 00:49:27,360 Speaker 1: like phonons, are waves that pass through a lattice in 987 00:49:27,400 --> 00:49:30,360 Speaker 1: the crystal and they're sort of similar to photons, but 988 00:49:30,400 --> 00:49:34,040 Speaker 1: instead of moving through the fundamental electromagnetic field of the universe, 989 00:49:34,200 --> 00:49:37,080 Speaker 1: they're moving through a crystal lattice. So we see these 990 00:49:37,080 --> 00:49:40,520 Speaker 1: same kind of properties emerging in condensed matter that we 991 00:49:40,600 --> 00:49:44,360 Speaker 1: often see also in the quantum fields of the universe, 992 00:49:44,520 --> 00:49:47,520 Speaker 1: and so there's a lot of connections between the mathematics 993 00:49:47,560 --> 00:49:51,640 Speaker 1: of solid objects and the mathematics of Space Time itself. 994 00:49:51,840 --> 00:49:54,160 Speaker 1: Does that inspire you to make your office more symmetric, 995 00:49:55,360 --> 00:49:57,880 Speaker 1: or do work in at causant state of frustration as well? No, 996 00:49:57,960 --> 00:49:59,719 Speaker 1: I'm always asking my department here. I'm like, can I 997 00:49:59,760 --> 00:50:01,760 Speaker 1: get a bunch of gold bricks? I'd like to build 998 00:50:01,760 --> 00:50:04,799 Speaker 1: a really strict, nice lattice to study their symmetry, but 999 00:50:04,880 --> 00:50:07,160 Speaker 1: so far having gotten a single delivery of a single 1000 00:50:07,200 --> 00:50:08,960 Speaker 1: gold brick. And you just need to let him your 1001 00:50:09,000 --> 00:50:11,399 Speaker 1: quantum glasses so he can see the future as well. 1002 00:50:12,200 --> 00:50:15,440 Speaker 1: Or maybe he's just gonna Send Me Microscopic Quantum gold bricks, 1003 00:50:15,840 --> 00:50:19,200 Speaker 1: whether either here nor there. Here's one atom of gold. 1004 00:50:19,560 --> 00:50:21,880 Speaker 1: Good luck in this economy. I'd be very happy for 1005 00:50:21,920 --> 00:50:25,160 Speaker 1: even one atom. All right, well, this is an interesting 1006 00:50:25,400 --> 00:50:29,040 Speaker 1: new kind of material and with interesting properties that we're 1007 00:50:29,200 --> 00:50:31,760 Speaker 1: learning more about, and it sounds like it's just another 1008 00:50:31,800 --> 00:50:33,759 Speaker 1: example of the weird things we can find and in 1009 00:50:33,800 --> 00:50:37,160 Speaker 1: this messy universe. You know, like maybe thirty years ago 1010 00:50:37,239 --> 00:50:39,279 Speaker 1: we would never have imagined that we can make a 1011 00:50:39,360 --> 00:50:42,840 Speaker 1: material that is magnetically frustrated. Yeah, and despite all the 1012 00:50:42,880 --> 00:50:45,120 Speaker 1: mess that we find around us, we can still seek 1013 00:50:45,239 --> 00:50:49,279 Speaker 1: order and find patterns and mathematical tricks to analyze it, 1014 00:50:49,320 --> 00:50:52,320 Speaker 1: which turned out to not just help us understand the 1015 00:50:52,400 --> 00:50:55,800 Speaker 1: stuff around us, but also reveal the mathematical patterns that 1016 00:50:55,880 --> 00:50:59,440 Speaker 1: seem to be inherent in the universe itself. Well, we 1017 00:50:59,480 --> 00:51:02,520 Speaker 1: hope you aoid dad. Thanks for joining us. Go have 1018 00:51:02,600 --> 00:51:06,680 Speaker 1: a shot of some quantum drink. have an electron on me. 1019 00:51:06,800 --> 00:51:16,840 Speaker 1: See you next time. Thanks for listening, and remember that 1020 00:51:16,960 --> 00:51:19,719 Speaker 1: Daniel and Jorge explain the universe is a production of 1021 00:51:19,840 --> 00:51:23,200 Speaker 1: I heart radio. For more podcast from my heart radio, 1022 00:51:23,320 --> 00:51:26,920 Speaker 1: visit the I heart radio APP, apple podcasts or wherever 1023 00:51:27,000 --> 00:51:34,440 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows. Yeah,