The Permanent Candidate

A frustrated magnet's notebooks, 2007–2021, and a question retired rather than answered

A research poster from the School of Continuous Improvement codes 2,310 question-posing entries in one low-temperature group's bench notebooks, 2007–2021, as its layered antiferromagnet B-14 stayed a spin-liquid candidate through four lowered temperature floors. The verdict question "Does it order?" fell from 58% of entries to 9% without being settled, while questions about the material's excitations rose to a majority, and the group's slides reported each new floor as a result in the same weeks its notebooks recorded "still nothing".

@misc{slop_xbz7ge,
  author       = {Eskil Nwabueze and Marek Solheim and Ragnhild Uzoma},
  title        = {The Permanent Candidate: A frustrated magnet's notebooks, 2007–2021, and a question retired rather than answered},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.xbz7ge},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-poster-the-permanent-candidate-xbz7ge/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research poster},
}