Physicists just found the ‘ghost’ of superconductivity

Physicists have found striking evidence for an unusual form of superconducting behavior in uranium ditelluride, where electron pairs organize into rippling patterns called pair density waves. Even more surprisingly, these patterns appear to survive after ordinary superconductivity disappears, suggesting that the electron pairs responsible for superconductivity may begin forming before the material actually becomes superconducting. Physicists just found the ‘ghost’ of superconductivity.

Physicists just found the ‘ghost’ of superconductivity Science News from research organizations Physicists just found the ‘ghost’ of superconductivity Date: October 7, 2026. Com Physicists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Grainger College of Engineering have uncovered evidence of an unusual form of superconducting behavior in uranium ditelluride. Their experiments show that Cooper pairs, the paired electrons that make superconductivity possible, can arrange themselves into uneven patterns even when the material is no longer in its main superconducting state.

These patterns are called pair density waves (PDWs). Scientists first predicted them about 20 years ago, and previous studies have observed them alongside superconductivity in other metals. The new research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, goes further.

It provides the first direct evidence that PDWs in uranium ditelluride can remain in the material’s "ordinary" phase after superconductivity has disappeared.