Researchers use neural networks to shed light on hidden order problem

In 1985 researchers at the University of Leiden published a paper describing the phase transitions of the heavy fermion alloy uranium ruthenium silicide (URu2Si2). That work sparked numerous studies into this fascinating material, with the phase transition at 17.5K proving particularly puzzling. Despite decades of research, the nature of this phase transition is still unclear. This March a collaboration of researchers from Cornell University, Florida State University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Max Planck Institute, Dresden, and Leiden University shed further light on the problem by combining resonant ultrasound spectroscopy and machine learning. Their work was published in Science Advances.