Wigner crystal
E98264
A Wigner crystal is an ordered lattice of electrons that forms in low-density systems when their mutual Coulomb repulsion dominates over kinetic energy, leading to a crystalline arrangement of charge.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Wigner crystal canonical | 2 |
| 3D Wigner crystal | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T818206 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Wigner crystal Context triple: [Eugene Wigner, knownFor, Wigner crystal]
-
A.
Fermi gas
A Fermi gas is a quantum many-particle system composed of fermions that obey Fermi–Dirac statistics, often used to model electrons in metals, neutrons in neutron stars, and ultracold atomic gases.
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B.
Fermi liquid theory
Fermi liquid theory is a framework in condensed matter physics that describes how interacting fermions in a metal behave like long-lived quasiparticles with properties similar to those of a non-interacting Fermi gas.
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C.
Fermi surface
The Fermi surface is the boundary in momentum space separating occupied from unoccupied electron states at zero temperature, crucial for determining a metal’s electronic and superconducting properties.
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D.
Bose–Einstein condensate
A Bose–Einstein condensate is an exotic state of matter formed when a dilute gas of bosons is cooled to temperatures near absolute zero, causing a large fraction of the particles to occupy the same quantum state and behave as a single quantum entity.
-
E.
Schrieffer
Schrieffer is the surname of John Robert Schrieffer, the American physicist and Nobel laureate known for co-developing the BCS theory of superconductivity.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Wigner crystal Target entity description: A Wigner crystal is an ordered lattice of electrons that forms in low-density systems when their mutual Coulomb repulsion dominates over kinetic energy, leading to a crystalline arrangement of charge.
-
A.
Fermi gas
A Fermi gas is a quantum many-particle system composed of fermions that obey Fermi–Dirac statistics, often used to model electrons in metals, neutrons in neutron stars, and ultracold atomic gases.
-
B.
Fermi liquid theory
Fermi liquid theory is a framework in condensed matter physics that describes how interacting fermions in a metal behave like long-lived quasiparticles with properties similar to those of a non-interacting Fermi gas.
-
C.
Fermi surface
The Fermi surface is the boundary in momentum space separating occupied from unoccupied electron states at zero temperature, crucial for determining a metal’s electronic and superconducting properties.
-
D.
Bose–Einstein condensate
A Bose–Einstein condensate is an exotic state of matter formed when a dilute gas of bosons is cooled to temperatures near absolute zero, causing a large fraction of the particles to occupy the same quantum state and behave as a single quantum entity.
-
E.
Schrieffer
Schrieffer is the surname of John Robert Schrieffer, the American physicist and Nobel laureate known for co-developing the BCS theory of superconductivity.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (52)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
electron crystal
ⓘ
ordered electronic phase ⓘ quasiparticle system ⓘ strongly correlated electron phase ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs | electron crystal ⓘ |
| characterizedBy |
Wigner-Seitz radius r_s
ⓘ
ratio of potential to kinetic energy ⓘ |
| formsIn | low electron density systems ⓘ |
| hasAnalogy |
Coulomb crystal in dusty plasmas
ⓘ
Coulomb crystal in trapped ions ⓘ |
| hasArrangement | crystalline arrangement of charge ⓘ |
| hasCompetingPhase |
Fermi liquid
ⓘ
charge density wave ⓘ fractional quantum Hall liquid ⓘ superconducting phase ⓘ |
| hasDimensionalVariant |
1D Wigner crystal
ⓘ
2D Wigner crystal ⓘ Wigner crystal self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
3D Wigner crystal
|
| hasExcitation |
phonon-like collective modes
ⓘ
pinning modes ⓘ |
| hasInteractionType | long-range Coulomb interaction ⓘ |
| hasMeltingMechanism |
quantum melting
ⓘ
thermal melting ⓘ |
| hasOrderParameter | long-range positional order of electrons ⓘ |
| hasPhaseTransitionType | quantum phase transition ⓘ |
| hasPhaseType | solid phase of electrons ⓘ |
| hasPhysicalNature | ordered lattice of electrons ⓘ |
| hasProperty |
broken translational symmetry
ⓘ
insulating transport behavior when pinned ⓘ long-range charge order ⓘ strong electron-electron correlations ⓘ very low kinetic energy per electron ⓘ |
| hasTheoreticalDescription |
Hartree–Fock method
ⓘ
surface form:
Hartree-Fock approximation
classical Coulomb crystal models ⓘ quantum Monte Carlo simulations ⓘ |
| namedAfter | Eugene Wigner ⓘ |
| occursIn |
GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures
ⓘ
electrons on liquid helium ⓘ one-dimensional electron systems ⓘ quantum Hall systems ⓘ semiconductor heterostructures ⓘ three-dimensional electron systems ⓘ two-dimensional electron gases ⓘ |
| predictedBy | Eugene Wigner ⓘ |
| predictionYear | 1934 ⓘ |
| requiresCondition |
low carrier density
ⓘ
low temperature ⓘ weak disorder ⓘ |
| stabilizedWhen | Coulomb repulsion dominates over kinetic energy ⓘ |
| studiedInField |
condensed matter physics
ⓘ
low-temperature physics ⓘ plasma physics ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Wigner crystal Description of subject: A Wigner crystal is an ordered lattice of electrons that forms in low-density systems when their mutual Coulomb repulsion dominates over kinetic energy, leading to a crystalline arrangement of charge.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
3D Wigner crystal