Princeton engineers have made a breakthrough in an 80-year-old
quandary in quantum physics, paving the way for the development
of new materials that could make electronic devices smaller and
cars more energy efficient. By reworking a theory first proposed
by physicists in the 1920s, the researchers discovered a new way
to predict important characteristics of a new material before
it's been created. The new formula allows computers to model the
properties of a material up to 100,000 times faster than
previously possible and vastly expands the range of properties
scientists can study. 'The equation scientists were using before
was inefficient and consumed huge amounts of computing power, so
we were limited to modelling only a few hundred atoms of a
perfect material,' said Emily Carter, the engineering professor
who led the project. 'But most materials aren't perfect,' said
Carter, the Arthur W. Marks '19 Professor of Mechanical and
Aerospace Engineering and Applied and Computational Mathematics.
'Important prop