{"id":215911,"date":"2025-06-14T05:20:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T10:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/first-quantum-mechanical-model-of-quasicrystals-reveals-why-they-exist"},"modified":"2025-06-14T05:20:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T10:20:00","slug":"first-quantum-mechanical-model-of-quasicrystals-reveals-why-they-exist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/first-quantum-mechanical-model-of-quasicrystals-reveals-why-they-exist","title":{"rendered":"First quantum-mechanical model of quasicrystals reveals why they exist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/first-quantum-mechanical-model-of-quasicrystals-reveals-why-they-exist3.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A rare and bewildering intermediate between crystal and glass can be the most stable arrangement for some combinations of atoms, according to a study from the University of Michigan.<\/p>\n<p>The findings come from the first quantum-mechanical simulations of quasicrystals\u2014a type of solid that scientists once thought couldn\u2019t exist. While the atoms in quasicrystals are arranged in a lattice, as in a crystal, the pattern of atoms doesn\u2019t repeat like it does in conventional crystals. The new simulation method suggests quasicrystals\u2014like crystals\u2014are fundamentally <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/stable+materials\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">stable materials<\/a>, despite their similarity to disordered solids like glass that form as a consequence of rapid heating and cooling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to know how to arrange atoms into specific structures if we want to design materials with desired properties,\u201d said Wenhao Sun, the Dow Early Career Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and the corresponding author of the paper <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41567-025-02925-6\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> today in <i>Nature Physics<\/i>. \u201cQuasicrystals have forced us to rethink how and why certain materials can form. Until our study, it was unclear to scientists why they existed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A rare and bewildering intermediate between crystal and glass can be the most stable arrangement for some combinations of atoms, according to a study from the University of Michigan. The findings come from the first quantum-mechanical simulations of quasicrystals\u2014a type of solid that scientists once thought couldn\u2019t exist. While the atoms in quasicrystals are arranged [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,1617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-215911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-particle-physics","category-quantum-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215911\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}