Аннотация:We review the many-body nature of the quantum material copper carbodiimide, CuNCN, which exhibits
seemingly contradictive physical properties such as a local Cu(II)–N coordination conforming to a 1 st order
Jahn–Teller effect, the total absence of magnetic neutron scattering and a fairly complex temperature de-
pendence of its magnetic susceptibility indicating both Pauli- and Arrhenius-like regimes. It is shown that a
many-body spin-liquid (or resonating valence bond, RVB) approach for modelling the frustrated antiferro-
magnetic interactions in CuNCN not only allows for a vivid physicochemical picture of the compound but
also predicts three RVB states differing in their dimensionalities as a function of the temperature. In addi-
tion, RVB theory semi-quantitatively describes subtle (and even paradoxical) structural effects in the lattice
parameters close to absolute zero temperature. The alternative spin-Peierls model of CuNCN, however, is
in conflict with the physical nature of the material.