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Scientists Find Long-Sought Majorana Particle
New submitter boner writes "In a follow-up to an earlier Slashdot story, scientists at the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands yesterday published their findings that they have indeed found the Majorana particle. The announcement on the university website provides both a summary of the academic paper (PDF) and background of this groundbreaking discovery. Quoting: 'Majorana fermions are very interesting – not only because their discovery opens up a new and uncharted chapter of fundamental physics; they may also play a role in cosmology. A proposed theory assumes that the mysterious ‘dark matter, which forms the greatest part of the universe, is composed of Majorana fermions. Furthermore, scientists view the particles as fundamental building blocks for the quantum computer.'"
Or was it just me?
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
This is not like finding the Higgs Boson. The majorana fermion they created was (hard to tell exactly how from TFA) a condensed matter excitation with the properties of a majorana fermion, not a fundamental particle. Pretty cool though.
My understanding is that what's been discovered is a pseudo-particle, a quantum excitation which behaves like a Majorana particle, not an actual particle like an electron or a neutron.
Did I read the article correctly that this was funded by Microsoft? That's sort of coolish...
A particle that is its own anti-particle? Sounds pretty special! Of course, that would also describe photons, the commonest particle in the universe.
Come on, science reporting.
From one of the articles: "a particle that is its own anti-particle" Can one of the physics geeks on here explain how that works? I was under the impression that when particle and antiparticle meet, they go boom. How can this thing not annihilate? Or is it that this bit of matter *can't* turn into energy? The wikipedia entry on this didn't make any sense to me.
I know that some sorts of proposed Majorana particles would require extending the Standard Model. Is this discovery consistent with the Standard Model or a conservative extension thereof?
The summary makes it sound like there is a particle that physicists have been seeking called a Majorana particle when in fact a Majorana particle is named because of its quantum field theory behavior. In this case NO particle was discovered but an excitation of a novel condensed matter state which behaves in an analogous way to a Majorana fermion. So in conclusion this very interesting discovery was both summarized and publicized in a misleading way.
Sometimes it looks like there's twelve.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Can I make my own Tina Majorino?
(like myself), here is the Wikipedia link
A Majorana fermion is a fermion that is its own anti-particle.
What the heck?! I am starting to think that my knowledge of physics will never reach even a mediocre level just because every time I start to think that I got some stuff covered, some smart-ass physicist comes by and pulls jet another particle out of his, ehem, hat.
It hasn't "become" complex, it simply is, and uncovering its true nature and describing it is complex becuase we're essentially putting our hands in a black box, feeling around, and trying to describe what we feel in a logical way. Trying to describe something you can't directly observe is nessessarily going to have a complex way about it. You can describe the physics of a bouncing ball in a simple way, or you can describe it exactly using mathematical terms. Same with particle physics, bet we're trying to describe objects and phenomena that don't have good parrallels in the everyday world. But you can describe them in general terms as well, see Hawkings "A Brief History of Time".
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
LOL, that's how I first read it. I thought, "What have they been smoking" followed by "Cool, there's no stopping it now".
I just thought I'd share that with all.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Oh. "Majorana", not "My Sharona". Never mind.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
Why would anyone want to waste these particles on quantum computers, when they could be used to power spaceship engines for intergalactic delivery services?
I believe (in a metaphysical sense) that all particles will be found to be "quasiparticles" in sence that they are emergent from some other phenomena. So, stop hating on the fact that this is not a "fundamental" particle. The idea of the quasiparticle is one of the most significant physics developments evar.
In other news:
Condensed matter physicists enherit the earth!!!!!
"Scientists Find Long-Sought Majorana Particle" and they had all raided the vending machines down the hall and where found in their lab coats sitting cross legged in a circle each in turn sharing there own far-out theories of reality... "hey man don't Bogart that marjorana particle pass in on man".
All elementary particles have an antiparticle of opposite charge
get published. That would be "all" except for the photon, gluon and Z which are their own anti-particle and possibly the neutrino which might actually be a majorana fermion (we just don't know yet - underground experiments are looking into this). The webpage article is no better because it gets hopelessly confused about the difference between a fundamental particle and a condensed matter excitation. However at least that did not have to pass a referee - the journal Science should be ashamed!
It was in this piece of unobtanium I had floating around
I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
I parsed it as Marijuana Particle too.