In addition to the four 'classic' states of matter which are solid, liquid, gas and plasma, scientists have discovered many new states of matter in a real material such as Superfluid, glass ... and most recently has been Quantum Spin Liquid state.
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To figure out what was going on, the researchers in University of Cambridge worked with a team from Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and used neutron scattering techniques to look for evidence of electron fractionalisation in alpha-ruthenium chloride - a material that's structurally similar to graphene (see more details in the original article).
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Image: The structure with 4 buttons at the contact point Source: Whitsitt et al 2012 New J. Phys. 14 115029