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] ...

Individual

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      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

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Group

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'

'Axiomatic' - according to Simondon

Glossary:

Fifty Key Terms in the Works of Gilbert Simondon, pp.203-231.
Jean-Hugues Barthélémy, translated by Arne De Boever. 

In. De Boever A, Murray A, Roffe J, eds. Gilbert Simondon: Being and Technology. Edinburgh University Press; 2012.

'Axiomatic
In Simondon, this notion does not designate a formal system as in the case of logico-mathematical axiomatics, but simply a set of principles, or first propositions, that enable the linking fundamental concepts. It is in this sense that Simondon, in IPC in general and more specifically in FIP, struggles to work out a 'common axiomatic' (FIP, in IPC 35 or ILFI 533) for the human sciences - which enables the unification of psychology and sociology.' p.208.

 

Simondon holds hope for me (I think) in terms of the extent of formality I (and others) might seek for Hodges' model. Is there a set of principles - and simple at that? The structure of Hodges' model 'places' the knowledge (care) domains of psychology (intrapersonal & interpersonal) and sociology next to each other, as if to encourage unification. The bridge: psycho-social and a great many others, are there, to take walk and reflect on what we find there. If we choose to. ...

I'll check on the abbreviations. 

FIP : « Forme, information, potentiel » (conférence datant de 1960, ajoutée par l’éditeur), in Simondon, ILFI et IPC (voir ci-dessous).

ILFI : L’individuation à la lumière des notions de forme et d’information, Grenoble, Éditions Jérôme Millon, 2005 (Thèse principale de Simondon pour le Doctorat d’État, écrite de 1954 à 1958). 

IPC : L’individuation psychique et collective, Paris, Aubier, 1989 et 2007 (cet ouvrage contient le dernier tiers d’ILFI, ainsi que son Introduction et sa Conclusion).

https://journals.openedition.org/appareil/2253