Hydrogen becomes a superfluid at nanoscale, confirming 50-year-old prediction - UBC

Hydrogen becomes a superfluid at nanoscale, confirming 50-year-old prediction

Science.UBC.ca | February 21, 2025

Hydrogen nano-clusters at low temperatures display ‘superfluidity’—a quantum state of frictionless flow only previously observed in helium.The new research was published today in Science Advances by an international team led by chemists at the University of British Columbia (UBC).

“This discovery deepens our understanding of quantum fluids and could inspire more efficient hydrogen storage and transport for clean energy,” says Professor Takamasa Momose, an expert on cold molecules at UBC and senior author of the paper.

Helium was discovered to possess superfluid characteristics at low temperatures in 1936—helium atoms flowed through extremely narrow channels without friction or viscosity. Some atomic gasses can also behave like superfluids.

Physicist and Nobel laureate Dr. Vitaly Ginzburg did predict liquid hydrogen might also be a superfluid in 1972—but until now, direct observations of hydrogen molecules that can become a superfluid have eluded scientists...more
https://science.ubc.ca/news/february-21-2025/hydrogen-becomes-superfluid-nanoscale-confirming-50-year-old-prediction