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posted by martyb on Sunday October 05 2014, @03:45AM   Printer-friendly
from the I-am-me-and-not-me? dept.

Physicists at Princeton University have observed Majorana fermions using a floating two-story microscope and iron wire embedded in a crystal of lead. From the article:

The hunt for the Majorana fermion began in the earliest days of quantum theory when physicists first realized that their equations implied the existence of "antimatter" counterparts to commonly known particles such as electrons. In 1937, Italian physicist Ettore Majorana predicted that a single, stable particle could be both matter and antimatter. Although many forms of antimatter have since been observed, the Majorana combination remained elusive.

Despite combining qualities usually thought to annihilate each other — matter and antimatter — the Majorana fermion is surprisingly stable; rather than being destructive, the conflicting properties render the particle neutral so that it interacts very weakly with its environment. This aloofness has spurred scientists to search for ways to engineer the Majorana into materials, which could provide a much more stable way of encoding quantum information, and thus a new basis for quantum computing.

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  • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday October 05 2014, @08:00AM

    by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday October 05 2014, @08:00AM (#101942) Journal

    Can't quite remember what it was, but a bird that flew around in increasing smaller circles, until it flies up its own butt, and disappears. That is what this article reminds me of. And besides, if a particle really was that neutral and non-interactive, isn't it kind of rude to just go and detect it?

  • (Score: 1) by hendrikboom on Sunday October 05 2014, @12:51PM

    by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Sunday October 05 2014, @12:51PM (#101997) Homepage Journal

    Neat! The only particle found so far that is its own antiparticle is the photon. Presumably if two photons meet they annihilate each other, producing, guess what, two photons indistinguishable from the originals.

    But this is a particle that stays around and doesn't scurry off at the speed of light. It's definitely a new and different addition to the zoo of discovered particles. And being able to make it with ordinary materials (iron and lead) without equipment costing billions of dollars will facilitate further research. The article says they don't think iron and lead are the optimum materials. Though it does appear to require superconductivity, which means it's not likely to be used on my laptop anytime soon.

    Fun all round.

    -- hendrik

  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday October 05 2014, @01:55PM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Sunday October 05 2014, @01:55PM (#102033) Journal
    TFA quotes:

    In addition, scientists regard Majoranas as possible candidates for dark matter, the mysterious substance that is thought to account for most matter in the universe, but which has not been directly observed because it also does not directly interact with other particles.

    [...]

    Despite the scientific interest, there was little progress in finding the particle until 2001 when physicist Alexei Kitaev (now a professor at the University of California-Santa Barbara) predicted that, under the correct conditions, a Majorana fermion would appear at each end of a superconducting wire.

    So, are there enough superconductive wires in this Universe to explain dark matter?
    Wikipedia says:

    In condensed matter physics, Majorana fermions exist as quasiparticle excitations in superconductors and can be used to form Majorana bound states possessing non-abelian statistics.

    Hang on... is this discovery just a confirmation of a certain type of exciton rather than a proper particle? Meaning: absolutely no real relation with the dark-mater?

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday October 06 2014, @02:31PM

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday October 06 2014, @02:31PM (#102433) Homepage
      The microscope was in fact demonstrating the presence of nano-pirates. Nano-pirates are known to be ticklish, and when the microscope goes past them, they go "haharrrrr", which is picked up as an excitation. I'm glad to see my theory of nano-pirates finally being verified by an independent team. I expect the nobel to be mine within the next few years.
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 05 2014, @06:56PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 05 2014, @06:56PM (#102130)

    As someone with undergrad physics degree, this is very much over my head.

    Anyway, there are other particles that are their own anti-particles. Photons are one example. Aside from that, no idea about any of what that thing is talking about.