Anyonic solution Calculations suggest that anyons are involved in the exotic properties of some 2D materials. (Courtesy: Shutterstock/Vink Fan)"> Anyonic solution Calculations suggest that anyons are involved in the exotic properties of some 2D materials. (Courtesy: Shutterstock/Vink Fan)

New calculations by physicists in the US provide deeper insights into an exotic material in which superconductivity and magnetism can coexist. Using a specialized effective field theory, Zhengyan Shi and Todadri Senthil at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology show how this coexistence can emerge from the collective states of mobile anyons in certain 2D materials.

An anyon is a quasiparticle with statistical properties that lie somewhere between those of bosons and fermions.…