Researchers at MIT have made a groundbreaking discovery, capturing heat moving in a wave-like manner, known as “second sound,” for the first time. Using a new mapping technique, they visualized how heat can move back and forth within a superfluid, a state of matter created when a cloud of atoms is cooled to low temperatures.
The team’s findings, published in the journal Science, show that the images reveal how heat can oscillate even as the material’s physical matter moves in a different way. This phenomenon is similar to watching water in a tank: one side may appear calm while the other side becomes hot and then vice versa.
To observe this behavior, the researchers developed a method using radio frequency to track how heat moves through the superfluid. By doing so, they gained insight into how heat flows inside high-temperature superconductors and neutron stars.
The study’s findings have strong connections to understanding electron behavior in high-temperature superconductors and neutrons in ultradense neutron stars. The researchers hope that their discovery will help scientists better comprehend these complex systems.
Source: https://www.the-express.com/news/science/173711/second-sound-journal-science-images