AI Tool Could Accelerate Discovery of Advanced Superconductors

Credit: iStock.Original story from Emory University, Using artificial intelligence shortens the time needed to identify complex phases in quantum materials.Using artificial intelligence shortens the time to identify complex quantum phases in materials from months to minutes, finds a new study published in Newton. The breakthrough could significantly speed up research into quantum materials, particularly low-dimensional superconductors.The study was led by theorists at Emory University and experimentalists at Yale University. Senior authors include Fang Liu and Yao Wang, assistant professors in Emory’s Department of Chemistry, and Yu He, assistant professor in Yale’s Department of Applied Physics.The team applied machine-learning techniques to detect clear spectral signals that indicate phase transitions in quantum materials — systems where electrons are strongly entangled. These materials are notoriously difficult to model with traditional physics because of their unpredictable fluctuations.“Our method gives a fast and accurate snapshot of a very complex phase transition, at virtually no cost,” says Xu Chen, the study’s first author and an Emory PhD student in chemistry. “We hope this can dramatically speed up discoveries in the field of superconductivity.”One of the challenges in applying machine learning to quantum materials is...
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Viewpoint: Powering the roll-out of advanced nuclear technologies through digital, data and AI

Matt Leedham (left) and Derreck Van Gelderen (Image: PA)The deployment of advanced nuclear technologies, such as small modular reactors and advanced modular reactors, presents a promising yet complex horizon as these technologies look to support the transformation of the energy sector, write PA Consulting's Derreck Van Gelderen and Matt Leedham.As the industry edges closer to bringing these exciting new technologies to life, integrating sophisticated data systems and emerging digital and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies across all phases of the advanced nuclear technologies lifecycle is critical to the success of the nuclear renaissance.However, deploying small modular reactors (SMRs) and advanced modular reactors (AMRs) is a more complex challenge than big nuclear due to several interrelated factors:- There is no vertically integrated utility model for advanced nuclear technologies (ANT), requiring the creation of an ecosystem of reactor vendors, developers, engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) organisations, and programme integrators, as well as future operators.- A core economic promise of ANT reactors is that they are designed for fleet standardisation to unlock economies of volume. This tension between protecting global IP and local design needs, makes data sharing more sensitive.- The supply chain for...
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