A 'rebel' metal has been discovered that refuses to change its electrical resistance even when frozen near absolute zero.
April 15, 2026
Original Paper
Quasi-linear `non-metallic' resistivity in the distorted-kagome metal CrPdAs
arXiv · 2604.11630
The Takeaway
Almost every metal in the universe follows a predictable rule: as it gets colder, its electrical resistance drops or levels off in a specific way. But this new compound (CrPdAs) is a 'distorted-kagome metal' that maintains a straight-line change in resistance all the way down to 2 Kelvin, something a 'normal' metal shouldn't be able to do. This 'non-metallic' behavior is a major clue that the electrons inside are acting in a bizarre, synchronized way we don't fully understand yet. Discovering materials like this is the first step toward finding 'holy grail' technologies like room-temperature superconductors, which would allow for electricity to travel across the country with zero loss.
From the abstract
We report the growth and characterization of single crystals of the disorted-kagome lattice compound CrPdAs. Spin-glass behaviour with $T_{SG} \sim 60\ {\rm K}$ is observed in all crystals tested. Some growths show in addition a magnetic impurity phase with $T_c$ around 200 K, but annealing produces single-phase crystals without the ferromagnetic impurity phase. Single-phase crystals nevertheless have $29\pm 5\%$ anti-site disorder of the Cr and Pd sites, similar to a previous generation of flux