Chemical Physicists Quantitatively Model Electron Interactions in Real Quantum Materials

A team of scientists from Caltech and Yale University has shown for the first time how to accurately quantify an important quantum phenomenon in metals, called the Kondo effect, for specific real materials. Unlike previous approaches, which for decades have relied on simplified models to qualitatively describe the effect, the new work uses the actual atomic and electronic structures of materials to solve the problem directly. The work represents a step toward simulations of important quantum materials such as high-temperature superconductors, in which the motions of individual electrons depend