(Phys.org)—Scientists have discovered an anomaly in the properties of ice at very cold temperatures near 20 K,which they believe can be explained by the quantum tunneling of multiple protons simultaneously. The finding is a scarce instance of quantum phenomena emerging on the macroscopic scale, and is even more strange because it is only the second time—the first being superconductivity—that macroscopic quantum phenomena have been observed in a system that is based on fermions, and which include protons,electrons, and all other matter particles. Other systems exhibiting macroscopic quantum phenomena have been based on photons, and a type of boson,which mediate the forces between matter.
Source: phys.org