2026-07-072026-07-07http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/146656The alkali hyperoxide KO$_2$ is a molecular analog of strongly-correlated systems, comprising of orbitally degenerate magnetic O$_2^-$ ions. Using first-principles electronic structure calculations, we set up an effective spin-orbital model for the low-energy \textit{molecular} orbitals and argue that many anomalous properties of KO$_2$ replicate the status of its orbital system in various temperature regimes.4 pages, 2 figures, 1 tableStrongly Correlated ElectronsMaterials Sciencetext