Magnetic monopoles are fundamentally important but highly elusive elementary particles exhibiting quantised magnetic charge. The prospect for studying them has brightened in recent years with the theoretical realisation that, in certain classes of magnetic insulators, the thermally excited states exhibit all the characteristics of magnetic monopoles.

A collaboration of experimental physicists led by Prof. JC Séamus Davis (University of Oxford), theoretical physicists led by Prof. Eun-Ah Kim (Cornell University), and computer scientists led by Prof. E. Kathami (San Jose State University), developed and trained a new Machine Learning (ML) protocol, based on a suite of artificial neural networks (ANN), that is designed to recognize different types of electronic ordered states which are hidden within electronic quantum matter image-arrays.

Superconductors are quantum materials that are perfect transmitters of electricity and electronic information. Although they form the technological basis of solid-state quantum computing, they are also its key limiting factor because conventional superconductors only work at temperatures near -270 C. This has motivated a worldwide race to try to discover higher temperature superconductors. Materials containing CuO2 crystal layers (cuprates) are, at present, the best candidate for highest temperature superconductivity, operating at approximately -120 C.

Congratulations to Professor Achillefs Kapanidis and Mr Bo Jing, CEO of Oxford Nanoimaging who have been named as BBSRC’s Innovator of the year 2019 – an award celebrating excellent research which demonstrates impact.