Physicists listened to electrical noise to crack a superconductor mystery

Physicists have used electronic noise to study the behavior of electrons in cuprate superconductors, a mystery that has puzzled scientists for nearly 40 years. They found that the electrons in cuprates exhibit a phenomenon called the pseudogap, where some electrons seem to vanish at certain energies. This phenomenon has been observed by different probes, but its cause has been unclear. The physicists used a novel approach to study the pseudogap, by listening to the faint electrical crackle of current flowing into a cuprate. They found evidence that the electrons in cuprates form pairs before the material becomes superconducting, which could be a key to understanding high-temperature superconductivity. The study's findings provide new insights into the behavior of electrons in cuprates and could potentially lead to new breakthroughs in the field of superconductivity.