Scientists observed electrons in graphene flowing like a nearly frictionless liquid in new studies.
The discovery breaks the classic Ohmic and Wiedemann-Franz principles on electrical resistance and heat flow.
This breakthrough could lead to chips that barely overheat and power grids with almost zero energy loss.
Physics folks are calling it a shock because they’re seeing a quantum state that shouldn’t exist this way.
Graphene just defied a fundamental law of physics
- Date:
- April 15, 2026
- Source:
- Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
- Summary:
- In a major breakthrough, scientists have observed electrons in graphene flowing like a nearly frictionless liquid, defying a core law of physics. This exotic quantum state not only reveals new fundamental behavior but could also unlock powerful future technologies.
For decades, physicists have been trying to answer a fundamental question: can electrons move like a perfectly smooth, frictionless fluid governed by a universal quantum value? Detecting this unusual behavior has proven extremely challenging. In real materials, tiny imperfections such as atomic defects and impurities tend to disrupt these delicate quantum effects, making them nearly impossible to observe.
Now, researchers at the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), working with collaborators from the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan, have finally identified this elusive quantum fluid in graphene. This material consists of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a flat sheet. Their findings, reported in Nature Physics, open a new path for studying quantum phenomena and position graphene as a powerful platform for exploring effects that were previously out of reach in laboratory settings.
“It is amazing that there is so much to do on just a single layer of graphene even after 20 years of discovery,” says Arindam Ghosh, Professor at the Department of Physics, IISc, and one of the corresponding authors of the study.
Breaking a Fundamental Law of Physics
To uncover this behavior, the team created exceptionally clean graphene samples and carefully measured how they conduct both electricity and heat. What they found was unexpected. Instead of increasing together, the two properties moved in opposite directions. As electrical conductivity rose, thermal conductivity dropped, and vice versa.
This result directly contradicts the Wiedemann-Franz law, a well-established principle that states heat and electrical conduction in metals should be proportional. The researchers observed deviations from this law by more than 200 times at low temperatures, revealing a striking separation between how charge and heat move through the material.