Graphene just defied a fundamental law of physics
Summarize this article with:
Science News from research organizations Graphene just defied a fundamental law of physics Date: April 15, 2026 Source: Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Summary: In a major breakthrough, scientists have observed electrons in graphene flowing like a nearly frictionless liquid, defying a core law of physics. This exotic quantum state not only reveals new fundamental behavior but could also unlock powerful future technologies. Share: Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIN Email FULL STORY Graphene just revealed a bizarre quantum fluid where electrons flow like a nearly perfect liquid. Credit: AI/ScienceDaily.com For decades, physicists have been trying to answer a fundamental question: can electrons move like a perfectly smooth, frictionless fluid governed by a universal quantum value? Detecting this unusual behavior has proven extremely challenging. In real materials, tiny imperfections such as atomic defects and impurities tend to disrupt these delicate quantum effects, making them nearly impossible to observe. Now, researchers at the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), working with collaborators from the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan, have finally identified this elusive quantum fluid in graphene. This material consists of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a flat sheet. Their findings, reported in Nature Physics, open a new path for studying quantum phenomena and position graphene as a powerful platform for exploring effects that were previously out of reach in laboratory settings. "It is amazing that there is so much to do on just a single layer of graphene even after 20 years of discovery," says Arindam Ghosh, Professor at the Department of Physics, IISc, and one of the corresponding authors of the study. Breaking a Fundamental Law of Physics To uncover this behavior, the team created exceptionally clean graphene samples and carefully measured how they conduct both electricity and heat. What they found was unexpected. Instead of increasing together, the two properties moved in opposite directions. As electrical conductivity rose, thermal conductivity dropped, and vice versa. This result directly contradicts the Wiedemann-Franz law, a well-established principle that states heat and electrical conduction in metals should be proportional. The researchers observed deviations from this law by more than 200 times at low temperatures, revealing a striking separation between how charge and heat move through the material. A Universal Quantum Connection Despite this unusual split, the behavior is not random. Both types of conduction appear to follow a universal constant that does not depend on the material itself. This constant is tied to the quantum of conductance, a fundamental quantity that describes how electrons move at the smallest scales.
The Dirac Fluid and Liquid-Like Electrons This remarkable effect occurs at a special condition known as the "Dirac point," where graphene sits at a boundary between being a metal and an insulator. By adjusting the number of electrons, researchers can reach this precise state. At this point, electrons stop behaving like individual particles. Instead, they move collectively, flowing like a liquid. This fluid-like motion resembles water but with far lower resistance to flow. "Since this water-like behaviour is found near the Dirac point, it is called a Dirac fluid -- an exotic state of matter which mimics the quark-gluon plasma, a soup of highly energetic subatomic particles observed in particle accelerators at CERN," says Aniket Majumdar, first author and PhD student at the Department of Physics.
The team also measured how easily this fluid flows and found that its viscosity is extremely low, making it one of the closest realizations of a perfect fluid ever observed. A New Window Into Extreme Physics These results establish graphene as an accessible and cost-effective system for exploring ideas that are usually associated with extreme environments. Scientists can now investigate phenomena linked to high-energy physics and astrophysics, including black-hole thermodynamics and entanglement entropy scaling, within a laboratory setting. Future Applications in Quantum Technology Beyond its scientific importance, this discovery could have practical implications. The presence of a Dirac fluid in graphene may enable the development of highly sensitive quantum sensors. Such devices could amplify extremely weak electrical signals and detect faint magnetic fields, opening the door to new technologies in sensing and measurement. RELATED TOPICS Matter & Energy Physics Nature of Water Detectors Quantum Physics Computers & Math Hacking Encryption Artificial Intelligence Math Puzzles RELATED TERMS Introduction to quantum mechanics Quantum computer Quantum entanglement Quantum dot Particle physics Solar power Physics Electron configuration Story Source: Materials provided by Indian Institute of Science (IISc). Note: Content may be edited for style and length. Journal Reference: Aniket Majumdar, Nisarg Chadha, Pritam Pal, Akash Gugnani, Bhaskar Ghawri, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Subroto Mukerjee, Arindam Ghosh. Universality in quantum critical flow of charge and heat in ultraclean graphene. Nature Physics, 2025; 21 (9): 1374 DOI: 10.1038/s41567-025-02972-z Cite This Page: MLA APA Chicago Indian Institute of Science (IISc). "Graphene just defied a fundamental law of physics." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 15 April 2026. . Indian Institute of Science (IISc). (2026, April 15). Graphene just defied a fundamental law of physics. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 15, 2026 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/04/260415042152.htm Indian Institute of Science (IISc). "Graphene just defied a fundamental law of physics." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/04/260415042152.htm (accessed April 15, 2026). Explore More from ScienceDaily RELATED STORIES Engineers Make Magnets Behave Like Graphene Mar. 8, 2026 Engineers have discovered an unexpected link between two very different realms of physics: the behavior of electrons in graphene and magnetic waves in specially engineered materials. By designing a ... A Superfluid Freezes and Breaks the Rules of Physics Feb. 5, 2026 Physicists have watched a quantum fluid do something once thought almost impossible: stop moving. In experiments with ultra-thin graphene, researchers observed a superfluid—normally defined by its ...
Graphene Just Broke a Fundamental Law of Physics Sep. 12, 2025 For the first time, scientists have observed electrons in graphene behaving like a nearly perfect quantum fluid, challenging a long-standing puzzle in physics. By creating ultra-clean samples, the ...
Rutgers Physicists Just Discovered a Strange New State of Matter Aug. 1, 2025 At the edge of two exotic materials, scientists have discovered a new state of matter called a "quantum liquid crystal" that behaves unlike anything we've seen before. When a ... Quantum Theory and Thermodynamics: Maxwell's Demon? Feb. 7, 2025 An international collaboration sheds new light on the relationship between quantum theory and thermodynamics. The research group demonstrated that while the laws of quantum theory alone do not ...
Light Derails Electrons Through Graphene Mar. 24, 2022 Researchers have experimentally caused electrons to bend in bilayer graphene with the use of light. The way electrons flow in materials determine its electronic properties. For example, when a ... TRENDING AT SCITECHDAILY.com Quantum Reality Gets Stranger: Physicists Put a Lump of Metal in Two Places at Once 34-Million-Year-Old Snake Found in Wyoming Rewrites Our Understanding of Evolution Scientists Discover Bizarre Crocodile Relative That Walked on Two Legs Scientists Shrink a Lab Spectrometer to the Size of a Grain of Sand