SPICE Workshop on Quantum materials and quantum information science May 19th - 21st, 2026
Silke Buehler-Paschen
Strange metal behavior–best known as a linear-in-temperature electrical resistivity at low temperatures instead of the normal Fermi liquid square-in-temperature one–occurs across many classes of quantum materials [1,2]. Its understanding is a major challenge. Heavy fermion compounds are particularly versatile model materials for studying this physics: they are comparatively simple, clean, and highly tunable, and several characteristics beyond linear-in-temperature resistivity, including dynamical scaling of the terahertz conductivity [3] and strongly suppressed shot noise [4] have already been identified. Most recently, a quantum Fisher information analysis of inelastic neutron scattering data provided first evidence of high multipartite entanglement in the strange metal state [5]. Interestingly, a similar neutron response was also found in a semimetal [6], and a striking new discovery is that an emergent Weyl-Kondo semimetal phase appears to be stabilized by this strange semimetal state [7].
[1] S. Paschen and Q. Si, Nat. Rev. Phys. 3, 9 (2021).
[2] J. G. Checkelsky, B. A. Bernevig, P. Coleman, Q. Si, and S. Paschen, Nat. Rev. Mater. 9, 509 (2024).
[3] L. Prochaska et al., Science 367, 285 (2020).
[4] L. Chen et al., Science 382, 907 (2023).
[5] F. Mazza et al., arXiv:2403.12779 (2024).
[6] W. T. Fuhrman et al., Sci. Adv. 7/21, eabf9134 (2021).
[7] D. M. Kirschbaum et al., Nat. Phys., published online Jan. 14 (2026).