SMRTR Science & EngineeringMar 28, 2025Scientific American

The First Sightings of Hofstadter's Butterfly Emerged from a Happy Accident

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Physicists have directly observed Hofstadter's butterfly, a fractal energy spectrum predicted in 1976, using twisted bilayer graphene. This unexpected discovery, made while studying superconductivity, provides new insights into quantum electron behavior and could lead to further investigations in other materials and systems.

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