Physicists Propose New Mechanism to Enhance Superconductivity with 'Quantum Glue'
A team of researchers, including scientists from HSE MIEM, has demonstrated that defects in a material can enhance, rather than hinder, superconductivity. This occurs through interaction between defective and cleaner regions, which creates a 'quantum glue'—a uniform component that binds distinct superconducting regions into a single network. Calculations confirm that this mechanism could aid in developing superconductors that operate at higher temperatures. The study has been published in Communications Physics.
Superconductivity is a state in which electric current flows through a material without resistance, losing no energy as heat. In ordinary conductors, electrons move independently and lose energy through collisions with atoms and impurities. In superconductors, however, electrons form Cooper pairs and move in unison, enabling current to flow without loss. Thanks to this property, superconductors are used to create powerful magnets, medical MRI scanners, and particle accelerators, and they also hold promise for developing new types of computing devices.
The challenge is that superconductivity usually occurs only at very low temperatures and is easily disrupted by impurities and defects in the material. These defects fragment superconductivity into isolated regions that fail to connect. Paradoxically, however, such disordered areas can also support the formation of Cooper pairs at higher temperatures. This creates a contradiction: structural disorder can locally enhance superconductivity, yet at the same time prevents it from spreading throughout the entire sample.
A team of researchers from HSE University, the Moscow Centre for Advanced Studies, and the Federal University of Pernambuco has shown that this challenge can be addressed by combining defective ('dirty') and clean subsystems. The team studied a two-band model in which one subsystem is highly disordered: superconductivity emerges there at higher temperatures, but only in isolated regions. The other subsystem remains clean, where superconductivity is weaker but provides connectivity. When the two are combined, a component arises that acts as a 'quantum glue,' linking the isolated islands and enabling current to flow through the entire sample at elevated temperatures.
Alexei Vagov
'Our calculations show that when defective and clean regions are properly connected, the material exhibits both a higher superconducting transition temperature and the ability to carry current without resistance. While disorder usually destroys this effect, we observed the opposite: defects can serve as a resource for creating more stable superconductors that operate at higher temperatures,' explains Alexey Vagov, Professor at HSE MIEM and co-author of the study.
Calculations confirm that this approach is effective for various types of disorder, ranging from random impurities to specially engineered superlattices. It is particularly promising for multilayer materials, where clean and disordered layers can be alternated; for compounds based on magnesium and boron (MgB₂), in which one electronic band enhances local superconductivity while the other facilitates current flow; and for materials with flat electronic bands, where electron pairing occurs more readily. Graphene- and graphite-based systems are also considered promising, as regular superstructures can form that alter electronic properties and promote stronger superconductivity. In the future, this could enable the development of materials in which defects and impurities do not hinder, but rather enhance, superconductivity.
The study was conducted with support from the Russian Science Foundation (Project 075-15-2025-010) and the HSE Basic Research Programme, using the university's HPC cluster.
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Researchers from the HSE Center for Language and Brain and the Mental Health Research Centre have proposed a new method of linguistic analysis that enables the distinction between normal and pathological ageing. Using this approach, they showed that patterns in patients’ word choices during verbal fluency tests allow clinicians to more accurately differentiate clinically significant impairments from subjective memory complaints. Incorporating this type of analysis into clinical practice could improve the accuracy of early dementia diagnosis. The results have been published in Applied Neuropsychology: Adult.
How the Brain Processes a Word: HSE Researchers Compare Reading Routes in Adults and Children
Researchers from the HSE Center for Language and Brain used magnetoencephalography to study how the brains of adults and children respond to words during reading. They showed that in children the brain takes longer to process words that are frequently used in everyday speech, while rare words and pseudowords are processed in the same way—slowly and in parts. With age, the system is reorganised: high-frequency words shift to a fast route, whereas new letter combinations are still analysed slowly. The study was published in the journal Psychophysiology.
How Neural Networks Detect and Interpret Wordplay: New Insights from HSE Researchers
An international team including researchers from the HSE Faculty of Computer Science has presented KoWit-24, an annotated dataset of 2,700 Russian-language Kommersant news headlines containing wordplay. The dataset enables an assessment of how artificial intelligence detects and interprets wordplay. Experiments with five large language models show that even advanced systems still make mistakes, and that interpreting wordplay is more challenging for them than detecting it. The results were presented at the RANLP conference; the paper is available on Arxiv.org, and the dataset and the code for reproducing the experiments are available on GitHub.
HSE Economists Find That Auction Prices Depend on Artist’s Life Story
Researchers from the Centre for Big Data in Economics and Finance at the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences have found that facts from an artist’s life are statistically significant in pricing a painting, alongside such traditional characteristics as the material, the size of the canvas, or the presence of the artist’s signature. This conclusion is based on an analysis of prices for 15,000 works by 158 artists sold since 1999 by the major auction houses Sotheby’s and Christie’s. The article has been published in the journal Empirical Studies of the Arts.
HSE Physicists Propose Unified Theory for Describing Electric Double Layer
To develop more efficient batteries and catalysts, it is essential to understand the processes occurring at the metal–solution interface in the electric double layer (EDL). Physicists at HSE MIEM have proposed a unified theoretical model of the EDL that simultaneously accounts for selective adsorption of ions on the surface and partial charge transfer between ions and the metal—phenomena that had previously been described separately. The model’s predictions are consistent with experimental data. In the future, it may be used in the development of batteries, supercapacitors, and catalysts. The study has been published in Electrochimica Acta.
HSE Researchers Experimentally Demonstrate Positive Effects of Urban Parks on the Brain
Scientists at HSE University have investigated the effect of parks on the cognitive and emotional resources of city dwellers. The researchers compared brain electrical activity in 30 participants while they watched videos of walks through parks and along busy highways. The results showed that green urban environments with trees produce a consistent effect across individuals, helping the brain calm down and relax. By contrast, walks along busy streets were found to be distracting. The findings have been published in Scientific Reports.
Fourth Robotics Festival to Take Place at HSE University
From April 1 to 3, 2026, the HSE Pokrovka Campus will host the Fourth Robotics Festival—one of the key events organised by the Faculty of Computer Science for anyone interested in robotics, programming, and engineering creativity. The festival will bring together robotics competitions, discussions, educational formats, and demonstrations of technological developments.
HSE University Scholars Uncover E-Learning Preferences of Top Students
HSE University experts have analysed students’ digital footprints and shown for the first time that final grades depend on one’s personal approach to an online course. Balanced students have proven to be more successful than those who follow a more traditional and practical approach. The findings from this study will help create a more adaptive and personalised educational system. This research has been published in the journal The Internet and Higher Education.
HSE Scientists Develop Method to Stabilise Iodine in Solar Cells
Scientists at HSE MIEM, in collaboration with colleagues from China, have developed a method to improve the durability of perovskite solar cells by addressing iodine loss from the material. The researchers introduced quaternary ammonium molecules into the perovskite structure; these molecules form strong electrostatic pairs with iodine ions, effectively anchoring them within the crystal lattice. As a result, the solar cells retain more than 92% of their power after a thousand hours of operation at 85°C. The study has been published in Advanced Energy Materials.
HSE Researchers Create Genome-Wide Map of Quadruplexes
An international team, including researchers from HSE University, has created the first comprehensive map of quadruplexes—unstable DNA structures involved in gene regulation. For the first time, scientists have shown that these structures function in pairs: one is located in a DNA region that initiates gene transcription, while the other lies in a nearby region that enhances this process. In healthy tissues, quadruplexes regulate tissue-specific genes, whereas in cancerous tissues they influence genes responsible for cell growth and division. These findings may contribute to the development of new anticancer drugs that target quadruplexes. The study has been published in Nucleic Acids Research.