Nothing brings people together like a common enemy, and this may also hold true for electrons!
Let me describe to you how two electrons can bind together when they face a third one (the common enemy). I will explain why this “three electron binding” matters in the search for room temperature superconductivity, a longstanding goal in physics, which, if achieved, would eliminate all the heating and energy losses which we currently suffer from in super-computing facilities and power plants. Finally, I will describe novel materials discovered at MIT in 2018, which provide a realistic path towards room temperature superconductivity, and their potential connection to our “three electron binding".
Valentin Crépel is a Mathworks fellow at MIT, finishing his PhD work this year before moving to the Flatiron institute (Simons’ foundation). His research focuses on the theoretical modeling of strongly correlated quantum phases of matter. He has received his Master’s Degree at Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris), and was awarded the Whitehead fellowship in 2019.