Scientists reveal hidden structure of a quantum fluid The advance establishes a new solid-state platform for studying high-temperature Bose-Einstein condensates in semiconductor devices, and could one day advance quantum information science, quantum simulations, coherent optoelectronics, and future exciton-based devices. (Nanowerk News) Bose-Einstein Condensates (BECs) are often described as a “fifth state of matter”: a quantum state in which many particles lose their individual identities and behave as one collective object. (A quantum fluid is an exotic state of matter in which gasses of electrons or other particles behave collectively like a fluid.) In the current study, the Berkeley Lab-led team found that the BEC is not a simple one-flavor quantum state: It has two components, each with different flavors of internal spin–valley structure. By simply applying a small magnetic field, we can switch the same exciton fluid between different quantum states.”