Theoretical physicists unveil one of the most ubiquitous and elusive concepts in chemistry

Even if we study them at school, oxidation numbers have so far eluded any rigorous quantum mechanical definition. A new SISSA study, published in Nature Physics, reverses this state of affairs by providing such a definition, based on the theory of topological quantum numbers, which was honoured with the 2016 Nobel prize in Physics awarded to Thouless, Haldane and Kosterlitz.

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Chiara Saviane (saviane)
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saviane@sissa.it