Quantum Physics: new weird electron particles (General)

by David Turell , Saturday, September 05, 2020, 19:52 (1327 days ago) @ David Turell

They are called anyons:

https://phys.org/news/2020-09-evidence-quantum-world-stranger-thought.html

"New experimental evidence of a collective behavior of electrons to form "quasiparticles" called "anyons" has been reported by a team of scientists at Purdue University.

"Anyons have characteristics not seen in other subatomic particles, including exhibiting fractional charge and fractional statistics that maintain a "memory" of their interactions with other quasiparticles by inducing quantum mechanical phase changes.

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"Before the growing evidence of anyons in 2020, physicists had categorized particles in the known world into two groups: fermions and bosons. Electrons are an example of fermions, and photons, which make up light and radio waves, are bosons. One characteristic difference between fermions and bosons is how the particles act when they are looped, or braided, around each other. Fermions respond in one straightforward way, and bosons in another expected and straightforward way.

"Anyons respond as if they have a fractional charge, and even more interestingly, create a nontrivial phase change as they braid around one another. This can give the anyons a type of "memory" of their interaction.

"'Anyons only exist as collective excitations of electrons under special circumstances," Manfra said. "But they do have these demonstrably cool properties including fractional charge and fractional statistics. It is funny, because you think, 'How can they have less charge than the elementary charge of an electron?' But they do."

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"Anyons display this behavior only as collective crowds of electrons, where many electrons behave as one under very extreme and specific conditions, so they are not thought to be found isolated in nature, Nakamura said.

"'Normally in the world of physics, we think about fundamental particles, such as protons and electrons, and all of the things that make up the periodic table," he said. "But we study the existence of quasiparticles, which emerge from a sea of electrons that are placed in certain extreme conditions."

"Because this behavior depends on the number of times the particles are braided, or looped, around each other, they are more robust in their properties than other quantum particles. This characteristic is said to be topological because it depends on the geometry of the system and may eventually lead to much more sophisticated anyon structures that could be used to build stable, topological quantum computers."

Comment: our reality is based upon a foundation of quantum mechanics. We are finding very strange reactions under conditions that do not appear in nature as we know it. Will our research solve our confusion or make it worse? Only God knows.