Physicists have developed a way to reliably create 'supersolids'—a bizarre state of matter that is simultaneously a solid crystal and a frictionless liquid.
April 1, 2026
Original Paper
Generation of dipolar supersolids through a barrier sweep in droplet lattices
arXiv · 2603.29203
The Takeaway
In our everyday world, something is either a solid or a liquid, but a supersolid breaks that rule by having atoms locked in a rigid grid while still flowing through each other with zero resistance. This paper outlines a new method to generate these substances by 'sweeping' magnetic barriers through gas clouds, bringing this impossible-sounding material closer to reality.
From the abstract
We propose a dynamical protocol to generate supersolids in dipolar quantum gases by sweeping a repulsive Gaussian barrier through an incoherent quasi-one-dimensional droplet array. Supersolidity is inferred by monitoring the ensuing dynamics of the density, momentum distribution, center-of-mass motion, and superfluid fraction within the framework of the extended Gross-Pitaevskii equation with quantum corrections. A persistent superfluid background arises, atop which the crystals oscillate in uni