How heating up a quantum system can be used as a universal probe for exotic states of matter

In physical sciences, certain quantities appear as integer multiples of fundamental and indivisible elements. This quantization of physical quantities, which is at the heart of our description of nature, made its way through the centuries, as evidenced by the antique concept of the atom. Importantly, the discovery of quantized quantities has often been associated with a revolution in our understanding and appreciation of nature’s law, a striking example being the quantization of light in terms of photons, which led to our contemporary (quantum-mechanical) description of the microscopic world.