Graphene just broke a fundamental law of physics

Graphene just broke a fundamental law of physics.

Its electrons just did something physicists thought was impossible. For nearly 200 years, metals have obeyed the Wiedemann-Franz law – the rule that electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity always rise and fall together. 

But in ultra-clean graphene, researchers at the Indian Institute of Science found the opposite. As electrical conductivity increased, thermal conductivity dropped, shattering a principle taught in every physics textbook. 

The key lies at the “Dirac point,” a strange electronic tipping point where graphene is neither a metal nor an insulator. Here, electrons stop behaving like individual particles. Instead, they flow collectively as a nearly perfect fluid – a state called a “Dirac fluid.” 

This discovery doesn’t just rewrite the rules for graphene. It provides a tabletop window into extreme physics usually reserved for black holes and high-energy colliders. Scientists say this behavior could help probe mysteries of quantum entanglement, black hole thermodynamics, and the very fabric of matter itself.

 ["Universality in quantum critical flow of charge and heat in ultraclean graphene." Nature Physics, 2025] ...

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While I can't fully understand this paper (even the abstract!), I realise that it is taking what seems a long time^ for industry and business to understand and realise the potential of graphene in industrial and technological applications.
Hopefully, applications will emerge, that are beneficial to all. Reducing energy use, improving efficiency, removing pollutants even more effectively, imcreasing the durability and hence lifetime of materials and products, and more.	Also, marvellous to see global collaboration at work, as science continues to asks questions. ^I could have written exploitation there, but could we put the collective and planetary first?

Majumdar, Aniket and Chadha, Nisarg and Pal, Pritam and Gugnani, Akash and Ghawri, Bhaskar and Watanabe, Kenji and Taniguchi, Takashi and Mukerjee, Subroto and Ghosh, Arindam. (2025) Universality in quantum critical flow of charge and heat in ultraclean graphene, Nature Physics. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-02972-z

Arxiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.03193

My source: https://x.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1966896966316474505

Which includes a video 5m 'Quantum Critical Flow in Graphene: Charge & Heat Dynamics'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrImy9PAHGk

See also on W2tQ: 'physics : 'women'