A research team led by Prof. Pavel Jungwirth at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB Prague) has uncovered a previously unknown phenomenon that emerges during the transformation of a liquid from a nonmetal to a conductive metal. In this transition, they observed a distinct phase in which the system spontaneously and rapidly flips between metallic and nonmetallic states – without settling in either for any meaningful length of time. This newly proposed theory is grounded in high-level molecular modeling. The study, carried out in collaboration with the University of Oxford, the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University, and the J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry of the CAS, has been published in and highlighted by Nature Communications.

The fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect (FQAHE) offers a promising path toward universal topological quantum computation by hosting non-Abelian Fibonacci anyonic parafermions. Recent breakthroughs in twisted bilayer MoTe₂ and rhombohedral multilayer graphene/hBN moiré superlattices have demonstrated fractionally quantized states, paving the way for high-filling fractions and fractional topological superconductivity, both of which are potential foundations for parafermions. Challenges remain in generalizing the required exotic states and integrating superconductivity, but FQAHE could be a key solution to the universality of topological quantum computation.