A class of magnets known as “frustrated magnets” revealed a rather interesting — and unlikely — behavior as scientists work to understand the nature of “discontented” quantum materials.

Researchers at Princeton University were studying frustrated magnets to see if they behaved according to the Hall Effect, which holds that an electric current carried by charged particles is deflected to one side when one applies a magnetic field. If such an effect is found in non-magnetic material, it would change how computing is dong via quantum computers, allowing it to process several calculations at once, according to an International Business Times report.

N. Phuan Ong, Princeton’s Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics, said that talking about the Hall Effect for neutral particles is a “crazy idea,” adding that what they found “is one example where something that shouldn’t happen is really there,” he said according to the report.

In condensed matter physics, the term frustrated magnet — or geometrical frustration — refers to the phenomenon when atoms stick to non-trivial positions that lead to very complex structures. Geometrical frustration is an important part of magnetism, and has to do with how spins aligning in a way that is entangled, not ordered. Ong said that scientists need to solve the issue of entanglement in order to eventually create a quantum computer.

The scientists worked with the materials at temperatures of 0.5 degrees Kelvin, which created challenges for the researchers, as it is difficult to study the Hall Effect at such a low temperature in order to see the quantum nature of these materials.

The Hall Effect is used in devices such as computer printers and faxes. The finding that frustrated magnets behave according to the Hall Effect even though not magnetic at low temperatures.

These findings could have tremendous applications for developing computers and electronic devices, including a quantum computer that would be able to process a huge number of calculations simultaneously, according to Sputnik.