Physics An experiment with a carbon material in a magnetic field has revealed a novel way for electrons to move, which doesn't fully belong in two or three spatial dimensions Facebook / Meta Twitter / X icon Linkedin Reddit Email A graphene sheet is 2D – but some thin materials may not fit neatly into that category ALFRED PASIEKA/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY A new quantum state of matter behaves as if it doesn’t fully belong to a world with two or three dimensions of space, revealing a previously unobserved way for electrons to move. Physicists categorise states of matter based on how electrons move within a material. This motion depends on many factors, such as the arrangement of the material’s atoms. When a thin material is immersed in a magnetic field, its electrons trace tiny circles, and any stream of them is pushed to the material’s side. This is known as the Hall effect. For materials that are magnetic , electron choreographies become more complex, giving rise to different versions of this effect.…