{"id":21462,"date":"2026-10-15T12:08:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T12:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/?p=21462"},"modified":"2026-10-15T12:08:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T12:08:50","slug":"acoustic-experiments-confirm-topology-can-persist-at-gapless-critical-points-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/?p=21462","title":{"rendered":"Acoustic experiments confirm topology can persist at gapless critical points"},"content":{"rendered":"

AI-rewritten:<\/strong> This is a summary of an article from Phys.org, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.<\/p>\n

Phys.org • October 7, 2026<\/strong><\/div>\n\n

Two recent studies published in the journal Nature confirm that topological properties can persist even when a material’s energy gap closes at a critical point. This discovery challenges the long-held belief that topology requires an energy gap to exist. The research was led by teams of Prof. Baile Zhang at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and Prof. Jianhua Jiang at the University of Science and Technology of China. Prof. Xue-Jia Yu from the Eastern Institute of Technology in Ningbo served as a co-corresponding author on both papers and provided key theoretical guidance for the experimental collaborations.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In conventional physics, matter states are often defined by symmetry breaking, but topological phases rely on global properties that remain unchanged under continuous deformation. These phases usually require an energy gap to protect their conducting edge states from disruptions. However, at a critical point where systems undergo phase transitions, such as water turning into vapor, the energy gap closes completely. For decades, physicists believed this gapless condition made it impossible for topology to survive, viewing criticality and topology as incompatible concepts.<\/p>\n

To test this possibility, Prof. Yu’s team collaborated with experimentalists to use acoustic metamaterials as a platform. They successfully observed critical topological phenomena in two independent experiments using different design strategies. The first study detected topological zero-energy modes at a one-dimensional Floquet critical point, while the second utilized entanglement spectrum measurements to observe both one-dimensional and two-dimensional critical topological effects. These findings provide the first experimental evidence that topology can coexist with critical universal behavior.<\/p>\n

\n

Source:<\/strong> Phys.org • October 7, 2026<\/p>\n

Read the original article at Phys.org →<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from Phys.org, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story. Phys.org • October 7, 2026 Two recent studies published in the journal Nature confirm that topological properties can persist<\/p>\n

READ MORE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quantum-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}