Scientists observed unique ergodicity-breaking behaviors in the C60 molecule’s rotations without breaking symmetry using advanced infrared spectroscopy. This discovery offers new insights into quantum system dynamics and promises further molecular investigations.
Researchers led by JILA and NIST Fellow Jun Ye, along with collaborators JILA and NIST Fellow David Nesbitt, scientists from the University of Nevada, Reno, and Harvard University, observed novel ergodicity-breaking in C60, a highly symmetric molecule composed of 60 carbon atoms arranged on the vertices of a “soccer ball” pattern (with 20 hexagon faces and 12 pentagon faces). Their results revealed ergodicity breaking in the rotations of C60. Remarkably, they found that this ergodicity breaking occurs without symmetry breaking and can even turn on and off as the molecule spins faster and faster. Understanding ergodicity breaking can help scientists design better-optimized materials for energy and heat transfer. The study was published on August 17 in the journal Science.
Many common everyday systems — such as heat spreading across a frying pan and smoke filling a room — exhibit “ergodicity.” In other words, matter or energy spreads evenly over time to all system parts as energy conservation allows. On the other hand, understanding how systems can violate (or “break”) ergodicity, such as magnets or superconductors, helps scientists understand and engineer other exotic states of matter.
In many cases, ergodicity breaking is tied to what physicists call “symmetry breaking.” For instance, the internal magnetic moments of atoms in a magnet all point in one direction, either “up” or “down.” Despite possessing the same energy, these two distinct configurations are separated by an energy barrier. The “symmetry breaking” refers to the system assuming a configuration with lower symmetry than the physical laws governing its behavior would allow, such as all magnetic moments pointing “down” as the default state. At the same time, since the magnet has permanently settled into just one of two equal-energy configurations, it has also broken ergodicity.
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